JGANDA 

MIITEMANOfWORK 


l 


BV  3625  .U4  M3  1907 

Fans,  Sophia  Blanche  Lyon, 

1876- 
Uganda's  white  man  of  work 


Uganda's  White  Man  of  Work 


FORWARD  MISSION  STUDY  COURSES 

Edited  Under  the  Direction  of 
The  Young  People's  Missionary  Movement 


UGANDA'S 
WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 

A  Story  of  Alexander  M.  Mackay 


SOPHIA  LYON  FAHS 

WITH    INTRODUCTION 

Br  Professor  F.  M.  McMurry 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 
NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1907,  by 

Young  People's  Missionary  Movement 

New  York 


TO   THE  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

WHO    DELIGHT   IN   TRUE   STORIES    OF   PEOPLE 

AND   WHO    MAY    COME    TO    REGARD   THE    WHITE    MAN    OF 

WORK   AS    ONE   OF   THE   REAL   HEROES    OF 

THEIR  ACQUAINTANCE 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introduction ix 

Preface xv 

Pronunciation  of  Uganda  Words xix 

I     A  Newspaper  Man's  Interview  with  a  Black 

King 1 

II     What  Happened  After  the  News  was  Read  .      .     22 

III  Jungle  Roads,  Ox-carts,  and  Fly  Bites    ...     49 

IV  Two  Receptions  at  the  Royal  Palace     .      .      .70 
V     White  Men  and  Black  Men  Become  Acquainted    89 

VI     The  King  and  the  Wizard    .      .      .     .      •     .      .111 

VII     The  Two-faced  Mutesa  and  the  Mohammedans  135 

VIII     The  New  Teaching  Makes  New  Men    ....   154 

IX     Mack  ay's  Queer  New  Name 170 

X     Three  Boy  Heroes  and  One  Boy  Tyrant    .     .     .195 

XI     Sturdy  Black  Christians  With  Nerve     .      .      .  219 

XII     The  White  Man  of  Work  Lays  Down  His  Tools  250 

Postlude.    Did  it  Pay?    ........  271 

Index       ...     .........     ...     .     .     ,.     .  281 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Uganda's  White  Man  of  Work  ....  Frontispiece 
Map,  Mackay's  Principal  Journeys  ....  Page  xx 
Stanley  Tells  Them  of  the  White  Man's  God  .  "  14 
The  Procession  Files  Out  of  the  Village  ..."  36 
Pulling  the  Cart- Barge  Across  the  River  ..."  65 
"  Officers  of  the  King  came  to  Escort  Them  to 

the  Palace  " "      74 

"  The  Marvels  of  the  Magic  Lantern  "...."  93 
"  The  Great  Wizard  of  the  Lake  is  About  to  Visit 

the  King  " "     112 

"Come  to  Prayers!     Come  to  Salvation!"      .     .     "     138 

"  The  Chief  Teaching  his  Wives  " "159 

"He  Cuts  Iron  Like  Thread!" "     188 

"  Part  of  the  Crowd  Brought  Fire-wood  "  .  .  .  "216 
"  Tell  the  King  That  I  Die  for  Uganda  "  .  .  .  "  226 
"  Talking  Thus,  We  Entered  the  Circle  of  Tall 

Poles  " "    265 

"  Load   after  Load  of  Offerings   Came   Through 

the  Doors" "    278 


INTRODUCTION 

It  has  long  seemed  strange  to  me  that  the 
history  of  the  attempts  to  spread  the  gospel 
over  the  world  during  the  last  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  has  not  constituted  a  very  im- 
portant part  of  the  religious  instruction  and 
study  of  young  people  in  our  Sunday- 
schools.  The  history  of  the  United  States 
has  been  extensively  used  for  the  develop- 
ment of  a  patriotic  feeling  toward  our  coun- 
try, and  religious  history  might  similarly  be 
used  for  the  development  of  faith  in  God. 

The  value  of  religious  history  for  this  pur- 
pose lies  largely  in  its  great  abundance  of 
detail,  and  its  consequent  concreteness  for 
young  minds.  The  theory  of  a  Christian 
life  is  not  presented  in  the  abstract,  but  is 
seen  in  connection  with  actual  persons,  often 
in  thrilling  situations,  and  the  exhibition  of 
unbounded  personal  faith  in  God  on  the  part 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 


of  missionaries  excites  the  admiration  of 
children,  thereby  instilling  in  their  minds  a 
tendency  toward  similar  faith. 

During  very  recent  years  some  apprecia- 
tion of  this  kind  of  subject-matter  for  the 
purpose  of  religious  education  has  mani- 
fested itself,  as  is  witnessed  by  the  populari- 
ty of  the  autobiography  of  John  G.  Paton, 
missionary  to  the  natives  of  the  New  Heb- 
rides Islands.  It  has  been  very  success- 
fully used  as  a  text-book  in  Sunday-school 
by  boys  and  girls  from  nine  to  twelve  years 
of  age,  and  the  possible  effect  is  suggested 
by  the  fact  that,  in  one  case  at  least,  the  chil- 
dren studying  it  formed  themselves  into  a 
missionary  society,  for  the  raising  of  funds 
for  mission  work,  and  raised  a  considerable 
sum  of  money  for  that  purpose. 

Text-books  for  religious  instruction  of 
young  people  are  sadly  needed.  It  seems 
odd  that  text-books  on  all  subjects  in  the 
day-school  are  so  readily  purchased  and  so 
exclusively  used  there,  while  they  are  al- 
most wanting  in  the  Sunday-school.    Yet  a 

x 


INTRODUCTION 


one-hour  per  week  course  of  study — such 
as  is  found  in  the  Sunday-school — is  just 
the  kind  that  is  in  peculiar  need  of  a  good 
text.  Nothing  of  much  value  can  be  accom- 
plished anywhere  without  work,  and  most 
of  the  work  connected  with  Sunday-schools 
must  be  accomplished  outside,  since  the 
period  there  is,  itself,  so  very  short.  It  is 
extremely  difficult,  however,  without  books 
to  assign  tasks  that  will  be  earnestly  under- 
taken by  children.  But  the  interesting 
story,  such  as  that  of  Paton's  life,  comes  in 
to  fill  this  need,  and  meets  it  admirably. 
Two  or  three  or  four  chapters  in  such  a  book 
can  be  assigned  for  outside  reading  each 
Sunday,  and  the  period  in  Sunday-school  it- 
self can  be  spent  in  talking  over  the  events 
described.  Provided  the  text  is  good,  chil- 
dren can  be  induced  to  work  in  this  way. 
And  this  use  of  a  text,  instead  of  supplant- 
ing the  Bible,  merely  furnishes  a  concrete 
introduction  to  it,  the  events  presented  con- 
tinually culminating  in  reference  to  certain 
verses  in  the  Bible,  which  become  interesting 

xi 


INTRODUCTION 


to  children  owing  to  such  connection  and 
can  accordingly  be  memorized  with  profit. 

The  Sunday-school,  in  that  it  has  not  long 
ago  generally  adopted  this  method  of  ap- 
proaching abstract  ideas,  is  far  behind  the 
day-school  in  development,  and  it  is  high 
time  that  psychological  principles  of  educa- 
tion that  are  well  established  in  secular  ed- 
ucation find  full  appreciation  in  religious 
teaching. 

With  these  thoughts  in  mind  Mrs.  Fahs 
has  undertaken  the  preparation  of  Ugan- 
da's White  Man  of  Work.  She  is  a  woman 
who  is  eminently  fitted  for  this  task,  both 
in  native  ability,  in  general  training,  in 
religious  interest,  and  in  special  training  in 
pedagogical  study.  I  have  read  the  work 
carefully  and  am  convinced  that  it  has  been 
admirably  executed,  and  I  feel  like  congrat- 
ulating both  her  and  the  children  at  large 
for  her  efforts  in  this  direction. 

I  hope  that  the  book  will  be  extensively 
used,  not  simply  by  teachers,  but  by  children 
themselves.    I  feel  little  patience,  too,  with 

xii 


INTRODUCTION 


the  complaint  that  parents  cannot  afford  the 
money  necessary  for  the  purchase  of  texts, 
for  Sunday-school  use  or  for  the  study  of 
religious  history  at  home.  Parents  readily 
spend  money  for  the  purchase  of  geog- 
raphies and  spellers  and  other  books,  and 
if  they  hesitate  to  spend  it  for  religious 
works  for  their  children,  it  is  usually  be- 
cause religious  instruction  has  been  so  for- 
mal, so  regardless  of  the  principles  of  teach- 
ing, as  to  become  lifeless  and  therefore 
unworthy  of  support.  But,  I  am  confident 
that  parents  will  respond  readily  enough, 
the  moment  a  thoroughly  progressive  spirit 
is  shown  in  this  field  and  the  question  is 
handled  just  as  similar  questions  in  the  day 
school  are  handled. 

F.  M.  McMurry 

Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 
February  15,  1907. 


xm 


PREFACE 

Uganda's  White  Man  of  Work  has  been 
written  primarily  for  boys  and  girls  between 
the  ages  of  ten  and  fifteen.  Although  it  is 
intended  to  be  used  as  a  text-book  by  Sun- 
day-school classes,  junior  societies,  and  mis- 
sion circles,  it  is  hoped  that  the  term  text- 
book will  not  carry  with  it  the  thought  of 
"cramming"  the  mind  with  facts  about  mis- 
sionary work.  The  book  is  first  of  all  a 
story  which  it  is  hoped  boys  and  girls  will 
be  interested  in  reading. 

The  initial  encouragement  to  write  such 
a  book  came  from  two  men,  the  one  an  ed- 
ucational, the  other  a  missionary  leader. 
At  Columbia  University,  under  the  super- 
vision of  Dr.  F.  M.  McMurry,  head  of  the 
department  of  Primary  Education  in 
Teachers  College,  a  Master's  thesis  was 
written  on  the  subject  "Missionary  Biog- 
raphy as  Supplementary  to  Biblical  Mate- 

xv 


PREFACE 


rial  for  the  Sunday  School  Curriculum." 
As  a  result  of  this  study  the  conviction  was 
formed  that  while  such  biographies  provide 
most  promising  material  for  Sunday-school 
use,  yet  but  few  as  yet  have  been  written  in 
a  form  peculiarly  adapted  to  interest  boys 
and  girls.  At  this  juncture  Dr.  T.  H.  P. 
Sailer,  Educational  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  added  his  influence 
to  lead  the  author  to  attempt  a  concrete 
illustration  of  the  thesis. 

For  further  encouragement,  for  a  multi- 
tude of  suggestions,  and  for  criticism  of  the 
manuscript,  the  author  is  indebted  to  many 
others,  of  whom  Prof.  John  W.  Hall,  head 
of  the  department  of  Elementary  Education 
of  the  University  of  Cincinnati,  and  the 
Rev.  E.  Morris  Fergusson,  General  Secre- 
tary of  the  New  Jersey  Sunday  School  As- 
sociation, should  have  special  mention. 

The  material  for  the  story  has  been  taken 
from  the  two  lives  of  Mackay  written  by  his 
sister,  from  letters  found  in  the  numbers 

xvi 


PREFACE 


of  The  Church  Missionary  Intelligencer  and 
The  Church  Missionary  Gleaner,  from  Two 
Kings  of  Uganda,  by  the  Rev.  R.  P.  Ashe, 
from  Through  the  Dark  Continent,  by 
Henry  M.  Stanley,  and  from  such  other 
books  and  articles  relating  to  Uganda  as 
could  be  secured.  In  making  quotations  lib- 
erty has  been  taken  to  change  the  wording 
with  a  view  to  greater  simplicity,  where  this 
seemed  essential,  although  it  is  believed 
that  in  all  cases  the  meaning  has  been  pre- 
served. 

The  author  recognizes  in  her  work  a  cer- 
tain crudity  which  often  characterizes  first 
ventures  into  comparatively  new  fields. 
If,  however,  the  book  should  prove  sugges- 
tive to  others  who  can  do  a  more  finished 
work,  she  will  rejoice. 

Sophia  Lyon  Fahs 
New  York  City, 
February  6,  1907. 


!XV11 


PKONUNCIATION  OF  UGANDA  WOBDS 

The  words  have  no  accent;  the  syllables  are  given  in  this  list. 
Number,  following  word,  gives  page  where  word  first  occurs. 

a-li-de,  200  Ka-le-ma,  256 

A-po-lo  Kag-wa,  237  ka-ti,  55 

Ka-ti-ki-ro,  17 
ba-gag-wa,  230  Kau-ta,  17 

Ba-ga-mo-yo,  36  ka-zi,  171 

Ba-li-ku-dem-be,  233  Kid-za,  214 

ba-ra-za,  80  kil-la,  215 

Ba-zun-gu,  129  Kirn-bug-wa,  187 

bwa-na,  40  Kin-tu,  16 

kub-wa,  57 
Cham-ba-ran-go,  16  Ky-am-ba-lan-go,  182 

da"la>  94  lu-ba-re,  94 

Du-mu-li-ra,  156  Lu-ga-la-ma,  213 


Lu-gan-da,  81 
Lu-kon-ge,  72 


Ga-bun-ga,   126 

hon-ga,  44 

Ma-si-ya,  215 

I-sa,   16  mba-ya,  55 

Men-go,  207 

Kar-du-ma,  72  mi-la-lu,  141 

Ka-ge-i,  84  Mi-ram-bo,  231 

Ka-ge-ye    (same  place  a9  Ka-      mi-ti,  55 

ge-i),    72  Mpwa-pwa,  42 

Ka-kum-ba,  213  Msu-la-la,  205 

xviii 


UGANDA  WORDS 


Muf-ta,  71 
Mu-ja-si,  204 
Mu-ka-sa,  111 
Mu-sa,  16 
Mu-te-sa,  4 
Mu-zun-gu,  55 
M\van-dang-wa,  72 
Mwan-ga,  200 
Mwi-ra,  1G7 

Na-lu-ma-si,  228 
Na-ma-so-le,  179 
Na-mi-rem-be,  274 
nji-a,  57 
Nu-a,  232 
ny-an-zig,  79 

pom-be,  12 
pos-hoj  41 

Ru-ba-ga,  73 
Ru-sa-ka,  182 


Sam-we-li,  244 
Seb-wa-tOj  213 
Sem-be-ra,  155 
Se-ru-wan-ga,  212 
si-ku,  215 
Son-go-ro,  72 

tu-u-si-fu,  215 

U-gan-da,  4 
U-go-go,  43 
U-ke-re-we,  72 
U-la-ya,  55 
Un-yan-yem-be,  141 
U-sam-bi-ro,  258 
U-so-ga,  202 
U-su-ku-ma,  120 
U-yu-ij  136 

Wa-gan-da,  8 


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Mackay's  Principal  Journeys  -* — ^ 


UGANDA'S 
WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 

CHAPTER  I 

A     NEWSPAPER     MAN'S     INTERVIEW     WITH     A 
BLACK   KING 

TT  was  a  November  morning  in  1875. 
-*-  The  London  newsboys  were  selling  un- 
usually large  numbers  of  the  Daily  Tele- 
graph. Enough  it  was  for  the  lads  to  cry, 
"Latest  news  from  Stanley,"  and  every  one 
wanted  a  copy. 

Mr.  Stanley  had  written  the  story  of  his 
adventures  in  Africa,  the  black  man's  land. 
Down  under  the  equator,  where  the  weather 
is  too  hot  to  be  talked  about,  he  was  explor- 
ing a  lake  named  for  Queen  Victoria. 

To  reach  this  place  the  traveler  and  his 
men  had  marched  through  many  regions 
where  the  native  savages  had  never  seen  the 

1 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


face  of  a  white  man.  Within  sound  of  the 
roaring  of  lions  and  the  cries  of  leopards 
and  hyenas,  they  had  cut  their  trails 
through  thick  African  jungles.  Their 
course  had  led  them  to  face  drenching  rains 
and  the  scorching  rays  of  the  tropical  sun. 
Again  for  days  they  had  plodded  along  over 
parched  deserts  in  search  of  water.  At 
other  times  they  waded  more  than  knee- 
deep  through  miry  swamps  steaming  with 
heat.  More  than  once  Mr.  Stanley  and 
many  of  his  men  had  been  forced  to  lie  in 
their  tents  helpless  and  burning  with  fever. 
Is  it  strange  that  a  letter  from  such  a  corre- 
spondent was  hailed  with  enthusiasm  in 
London  % 

But  who  had  brought  the  letter  all  the 
way  to  London  from  Stanley  in  the  heart 
of  Africa?  Not  a  post-office  or  mail-car- 
rier was  to  be  found  within  a  thousand 
miles  of  where  Stanley  was.  The  black 
men  had  no  railroads,  or  mail-coaches  or 
even  roads  over  which  a  coach  might  be 
pulled.    Little  wonder  then  that  the  letter 

2 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

was  seven  months  old  when  it  appeared  in 
the  morning  newspaper.  When  one  thinks 
of  the  way  it  came,  the  marvel  is  that  it  ever 
reached  England  at  all. 

It  is  the  story  of  a  pair  of  boots.  A 
young  Frenchman,  happening  to  be  with 
Mr.  Stanley  at  the  time,  wished  to  return  to 
Europe.  Gladly  taking  the  letter  with  him, 
he  and  his  caravan  started  on  their  home- 
ward journey.  Marching  northward  along 
the  bank  of  the  River  Nile,  one  day  they 
were  suddenly  attacked  by  a  band  of  savage 
tribesmen.  The  Frenchman  was  killed  and 
his  corpse  was  heartlessly  left  lying  un- 
buried  on  the  sand.  Later  some  English 
soldiers  passing  by  discovered  the  dead 
body.  Hidden  in  one  of  the  boots,  they 
found  Mr.  Stanley's  letter.  They  quickly 
forwarded  it  to  the  English  General  in 
Egypt  and  from  there  it  was  sent  to  the 
newspaper  office  in  London.  Was  it  by 
mere  chance  that  the  letter  was  preserved"? 
Some  who  read  the  rest  of  the  story  may 
think  that  perhaps  the  Great  Father  who 

3 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


loves  both  black  and  white  people  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  it. 

But  what  had  Mr.  Stanley  written  in  this 
letter  which  all  were  so  eager  to  read?  A 
message  very  different  from  any  he  had 
ever  sent  home  before — yes,  very  different 
too  from  that  which  any  one  had  expected 
from  him.  Had  he  been  a  missionary,  his 
letter  would  not  have  proved  so  surprising. 
But  Mr.  Stanley  was  an  explorer  and  news- 
paper correspondent.  Indeed,  many  in 
England  did  not  know  that  he  even  called 
himself  a  Christian.  Imagine,  then,  how 
they  felt  when  they  found  that  part  of  the 
letter  read  something  like  this : 

"King  Mutesa  of  Uganda  has  been  ask- 
ing me  about  the  white  man's  God.  Al- 
though I  had  not  expected  turning  a  mis- 
sionary, for  days  I  have  been  telling  this 
black  king  all  the  Bible  stories  I  know.  So 
enthusiastic  has  he  become  that  already  he 
has  determined  to  observe  the  Christian 
Sabbath  as  well  as  the  Mohammedan  Sab- 
bath, and  all  his  great  captains  have  con- 

4 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

sented  to  follow  his  example.  He  lias  fur- 
ther caused  the  Ten  Commandments  as  well 
as  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  golden  com- 
mandment of  our  Saviour,  'Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  to  be  written  on 
boards  for  his  daily  reading. 

"Oh,  that  some  pious,  practical  mission- 
ary would  come  here!  Mutesa  would  give 
him  anything  that  he  desired — houses, 
lands,  cattle,  ivory,  and  other  things.  He 
could  call  a  province  his  own  in  one  day. 
It  is  not  the  mere  preacher,  however,  that 
is  wanted  here.  It  is  the  practical  Chris- 
tian, who  can  teach  people  how  to  become 
Christians,  cure  their  diseases,  build  dwell- 
ings, teach  farming,  and  turn  his  hand  to 
anything,  like  a  sailor — this  is  the  man  who 
is  wanted.  Such  a  one,  if  he  can  be  found, 
would  become  the  saviour  of  Africa. 

"Here,  gentlemen,  is  your  opportunity — 
embrace  it!  The  people  on  the  shores  of 
Victoria  Lake  call  upon  you.  Listen  to 
them.  You  need  not  fear  to  spend  money 
upon  this  mission,  as  Mutesa  is  sole  ruler, 

5 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


and  will  repay  its  cost  tenfold  with  ivory, 
coffee,  otter  skins  of  a  very  fine  quality,  or 
even  in  cattle,  for  the  wealth  of  this  country 
in  these  products  is  immense." 

It  was  not  till  some  time  later  that  Mr. 
Stanley  told  all  the  marvelous  tale.  No 
one  who  heard  it  wondered  any  more  that 
he  had  asked  for  missionaries  to  go  to 
Uganda.     This  is  how  the  story  ran : 

With  his  large  company  of  followers,  he 
had  begun  the  voyage  northward  on  Victoria 
Lake  toward  Uganda.  One  clear  morning 
they  spied  on  the  far  horizon  a  fleet  of 
canoes  coming  toward  them.  As  the  canoes 
approached,  the  white  men  caught  sight  of 
African  oarsmen  aboard  better  dressed  than 
any  other  negroes  they  had  seen  in  all  their 
journey. 

The  black  sailors  hailed  the  white  cap- 
tain, and  when  they  were  near  enough  to 
talk  with  each  other,  they  told  him  of  a 
strange  dream  the  mother  of  their  king  had 
dreamed  two  nights  before.  She  thought 
she  saw  on  the  lake  a  beautiful  vessel  hav- 

6 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

ing  white  wings  like  a  bird.  On  board  was 
a  white  man  with  wonderful,  large  eyes  and 
long  black  hair.  The  king,  on  hearing  the 
dream,  had  sent  these  men  to  find  the  white 
man  and  to  invite  him  to  his  court.  Mr. 
Stanley  could  not  do  other  than  respond 
favorably  to  this  royal  invitation,  and  as 
soon  as  possible  he  followed  his  new  guides 
to  the  northern  shore  of  the  lake,  where 
lay  their  home  country,  the  kingdom  of 
Uganda. 

A  great  surprise  was  in  store  for  him 
when  he  landed.  On  the  beach  stood  two 
thousand  people  marshaled  in  two  long 
parallel  lines.  Noisy  salutes  from  numer- 
ous guns,  the  waving  of  bright-colored  flags, 
the  beating  of  tom-toms,  and  the  blaring  of 
trumpets,  all  combined  to  express  their  glad 
welcome.  So  many  Africans  all  neatly 
clad  in  long  white  robes,  with  their  chiefs 
arrayed  in  rich  scarlet  gowns,  made  a  spec- 
tacle new  to  Mr.  Stanley.  On  his  way  to 
Uganda,  he  had  passed  through  the  coun- 
tries of  twenty  or  more  African  tribes,  but 

.7. 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


the  people  were  all  savages,  wearing  little 
or  nothing  one  could  call  clothes.  These 
Waganda  (for  that  is  the  name  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Uganda),  however,  seemed  to  him 
highly  civilized. 

The  strange  white  guest  was  taken  to 
the  tent  which  had  been  made  ready  for  his 
coming.  Soon  a  herd  of  oxen  was  driven 
into  the  courtyard  in  front  of  the  tent,  and 
then  a  number  of  goats  and  sheep.  On  the 
ground  a  hundred  bunches  of  bananas  were 
piled.  By  them  was  laid  a  queer  heap  of 
eatables,  including  three  dozen  chickens, 
four  wooden  dishes  of  milk,  four  baskets  of 
sweet  potatoes,  fifty  ears  of  green  Indian 
corn,  a  basket  of  rice,  twenty  dozen  eggs, 
and  ten  pots  of  Uganda  wine — a  most  gen- 
erous gift  from  the  king  whom  the  stranger 
had  not  yet  seen. 

When  the  day  came  for  the  white  man 
to  visit  the  king's  court,  Mr.  Stanley  with 
his  large  company  marched  along  a  broad, 
well-built  road  leading  to  the  top  of  a  hill, 
where  stood  a  high,  dome-shaped  hut  built 

8 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

of  reed  grass.  In  the  doorway  of  this  royal 
palace  stood  the  tall,  slender  figure  of  King 
Mutesa.  His  rich,  red  costume  with  gold 
embroidery  was  very  becoming  to  his  grace- 
ful, broad-shouldered  figure  and  handsome 
face.  In  his  talk  with  Mr.  Stanley,  he 
showed  himself  bright  and  eager  to  learn 
all  that  he  could  to  increase  the  greatness  of 
his  realm,  which  was  already  no  small  king- 
dom. 

Most  African  nations  were  small  tribes 
of  a  few  hundred  or  thousand  people,  and 
most  so-called  African  kings  were  chiefs 
over  a  small  group  of  African  villages. 
The  kingdom  of  Uganda  was  a  most  nota- 
ble exception.  Here  was  a  country  as  large 
as  the  New  England  States,  with  four  mil- 
lion people,  all  ruled  by  one  powerful  mon- 
arch. Nor  did  he  rule  in  the  f  ashon  of  most 
African  chiefs.  His  House  of  Lords  met 
daily  in  his  palace  for  counsel.  These  were 
his  great  chiefs  or  earls,  who  ruled  his  prov- 
inces. He  had  also  his  prime  minister,  his 
chief  judge,  his  commander-in-chief  for  the 

9 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


large  army  of  black  soldiers,  and  his  grand 
admiral  for  the  navy  of  canoes.  To  the 
white  man,  Mutesa  seemed  like  some  great 
Caesar  of  Africa. 

Mr.  Stanley,  while  still  a  lad,  had  told 
some  of  his  boy  friends  that  when  he  be- 
came a  man  he  was  going  to  be  a  mission- 
ary. This  resolve  of  his  boyhood  days, 
however,  had  slipped  from  his  mind  as  he 
became  older.  Now  in  Uganda,  where  he 
was  talking  daily  with  this  great  African 
king,  there  came  back  to  him  the  longing 
he  had  when  a  boy,  and  he  wished  to  know 
how  to  be  a  missionary.  "If  David  Living- 
stone were  only  alive  and  here  in  Uganda," 
he  thought  to  himself,  "what  a  wonderful 
work  he  would  do.  For  should  king  Mutesa 
and  his  millions  of  subjects  become  Chris- 
tians they  in  turn  would  make  the  best  kind 
of  missionaries  to  the  savage  tribes  all  about 
them. ' ' 

But  Mutesa  and  his  people  were  heathen. 
This  does  not  mean  that  they  worshiped 
idols;  for  had  one  searched  throughout  the 

10 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

whole  country  of  Uganda,  he  probably 
would  not  have  found  a  single  image.  He 
would  have  seen,  however,  here  and  there 
along  the  roadside,  usually  under  the  shade 
of  some  tree  or  on  the  top  of  a  mountain,  lit- 
tle huts  so  small  he  might  have  thought  they 
were  playhouses  for  the  little  Uganda  chil- 
dren; but  they  were  used  for  a  very  differ- 
ent purpose.  To  these  tiny  grass  huts  the 
Waganda  went  to  sacrifice. 

They  believed  there  was  a  great  god  who 
many  hundred  years  ago  created  the  whole 
world;  but,  since  men  had  become  very 
wicked,  this  god  grew  angry  and  would  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  the  world.  It  was 
no  use  therefore  to  pray  to  him,  for  he 
would  never  listen.  Instead,  they  wor- 
shiped different  kinds  of  evil  spirits.  These 
spirits  lived  in  trees,  or  on  the  mountains, 
or  on  the  lake,  or  sometimes  even  in  per- 
sons ;  and  the  Waganda  thought  they  would 
do  much  harm  unless  presents  were  given 
to  them.  Tied  to  one  of  the  little  sacred 
huts  or  to  a  tree  beside  it  might  be  seen 

11 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


some  of  these  gifts  walking  around — several 
sheep  or  goats  or  cows.  Peeping  inside  the 
hut,  one  might  discover  also  a  bunch  of  ba- 
nanas or  several  skin  bottles  filled  with 
pombe,  which  is  a  Uganda  wine  made  from 
bananas.  The  ugly  old  man  or  woman  who 
is  guardian  of  the  prayer  hut  keeps  these 
gifts  until  the  evil  spirit  is  supposed  to  have 
taken  all  he  wishes  to  eat ;  then  the  guardian 
gives  himself  a  treat.  So  the  poor  Wa- 
ganda  used  to  pray  to  these  evil  spirits  by 
giving  them  presents,  not  of  course  because 
they  loved  the  spirits  but  because  they  were 
afraid  of  them. 

There  was  another  religion  also,  very  dif- 
ferent from  this  heathen  spirit  worship, 
about  which  Mutesa  had  heard  a  good  deal. 
For  about  fifty  years,  Arab  merchants  had 
been  coming  into  Uganda  to  trade  calico, 
wire,  beads,  and  various  trinkets  for  native 
ivory  and  slaves. 

" There  is  one  true  God,"  these  merchants 
said,  "and  his  greatest  prophet  is  Moham- 
med.   To  him  God  gave  great  power  to  do 

12 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

miracles  and  to  conquer  many  nations. 
Now,  millions  upon  millions  of  people  wor- 
ship him.  In  dreams  Mohammed  was  told 
by  God  many  wonderful  things  about 
heaven  and  hell,  and  he  has  given  his  fol- 
lowers some  good  commandments."  To 
Mutesa  the  stories  they  told  of  Mohammed 
seemed  far  more  wonderful  than  the  foolish 
tales  he  had  heard  of  the  evil  spirits  in 
Uganda;  and  he  felt  almost  like  becoming 
a  Mohammedan.  He  began  to  wear  the  Mo- 
hammedan dress  and  turban,  he  taught  his 
chiefs  Mohammedan  customs,  and  he  kept 
the  Mohammedan  Sabbath.  Thus  Mr. 
Stanley  found  Mutesa  half  heathen  and  half 
Mohammedan,  never  having  heard  that  to 
be  a  Christian  was  better  than  either. 

Day  after  day  passed,  and  each  day  King 
Mutesa  and  Mr.  Stanley  talked  together  on 
many  subjects.  The  explorer  hesitated  to 
speak  of  the  Christian's  God,  for  he  knew 
not  whether  Mutesa  would  be  glad  or  angry 
to  hear  of  Him.  One  day  at  court,  when 
the  chiefs  were  all  present,  some  one  of 

13 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


his  own  accord  asked  Mr.  Stanley  to  tell 
them  of  the  white  man's  God.    As  he  began 
to  tell  of  God,  the  loving  Father,  and  of 
Jesus  Christ,  his  Son,  Mr.  Stanley  noticed 
that  the  king  and  courtiers  were  listening 
more  intently  than  he  had  ever  known  them 
to  listen  before.    Until  that  day,  it  had  al- 
ways been  thought  polite  to  talk  about  any 
one  subject  for  a  short  time  only;  but  now 
these  black  men  seemed  to  forget  to  become 
wearied.    Each  succeeding  day,  Mr.  Stan- 
ley continued  to  talk  on  this  same  subject. 
His  hearers  appeared  far  more  interested 
in  what  he  said  about  Jesus  than  they  had 
ever  been  in  any  of  the  wonderful  things 
he  had  told  about  civilized  people. 

Mr.  Stanley's  visit  with  Mutesa  lasted  for 
some  months.  When  it  became  known  that 
he  was  soon  to  leave  the  country,  some  one 
suggested  that  at  least  a  few  of  the  things 
the  white  man  had  said  should  be  written 
down  so  that  they  would  not  be  forgotten. 
By  good  fortune  there  were  two  lads  who 
together  could  do  the  translating  and  writ- 

14 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

ing;  one  was  the  king's  chief  drummer,  the 
other  was  one  of  Mr.  Stanley's  boat  boys. 
So,  on  thin  polished  boards  of  white  wood, 
each  about  a  foot  square,  they  wrote  the 
Ten  Commandments  and  some  of  the  most 
striking  stories  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments; until  the  Waganda  had  a  little  li- 
brary of  board  books. 

One  memorable  day,  King  Mutesa  called 
to  him  his  chiefs,  the  officers  of  his  guard, 
and  Mr.  Stanley.  When  all  were  seated  be- 
fore him,  some  on  the  floor  and  some  on 
stools,  in  his  palace  hut,  Mutesa  began  to 
speak. 

"When  I  became  king,"  he  said,  in  the 
language  of  his  country,  "I  delighted  in 
shedding  blood  because  I  knew  no  better. 
I  was  only  following  the  customs  of  my 
fathers ;  but,  when  an  Arab  trader  came  and 
taught  me  the  Mohammedan  religion,  I  gave 
up  the  example  of  my  fathers,  and  behead- 
ings became  less  frequent.  No  man  can 
say  that  since  that  day  he  has  seen  Mutesa 
drunk  with  pombe.    But  there  were  a  great 

15 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


many  things  I  could  not  understand  and 
some  things  which  seemed  very  unreason- 
able; but  no  one  in  Uganda  was  able  to  ex- 
plain them  to  me.  Now,  God  be  thanked, 
a  white  man,  Standee,  has  come  to  Uganda 
with  a  book  older  than  the  Koran  [sacred 
book]  of  Mohammed.  My  boys  have  read 
out  of  it  to  me,  and  I  find  it  is  a  great  deal 
better  than  the  book  of  Mohammed,  besides 
it  is  the  first  and  oldest  book.  The  prophet 
Musa  [Moses]  wrote  some  of  it  a  long,  long 
time  before  Mohammed  was  born.  As  Kin- 
tu,  our  first  king,  was  a  long  time  before 
me,  so  Musa  was  before  Mohammed.  Now 
I  want  you,  my  chiefs  and  soldiers,  to  tell 
me  what  we  shall  do.  Shall  we  believe  in 
Isa  [Jesus]  and  Musa  or  in  Mohammed?" 

One  of  the  group,  Chambarango  by  name, 
spoke  up:  "Let  us  take  that  which  is  the 
best." 

"But,"  came  a  reply  from  the  prime  min- 
ister, "we  do  not  know  which  is  the  best. 
The  Arabs  say  their  book  is  the  best,  and 
the  white  men  say  their  book  is  the  best — 

16 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

how  then  can  we  know  which  speaks  the 
truth?" 

Then  Kauta,  the  king's  steward,  said: 
"When  Mutesa  became  a  son  of  Mohammed, 
he  taught  me,  and  I  became  one ;  if  my  mas- 
ter says  he  taught  me  wrong,  having  got 
more  knowledge,  he  can  now  teach  me  right. 
I  am  waiting  to  hear  his  words." 

Pleased  at  this,  Mutesa  again  addressed 
his  chiefs :  "  Kauta  speaks  well.  If  I  taught 
him  how  to  become  a  Mohammedan,  I  did  it 
because  I  believed  it  to  be  good.  Chambar- 
ango  says,  'Let  us  take  that  which  is  best.' 
True,  I  want  that  which  is  the  best,  and  I 
want  the  true  book ;  but  the  katikiro  [prime 
minister]  asks,  'How  are  we  to  know  which 
is  true  f '  And  I  will  answer  him.  Listen  to 
me.  The  Arabs  and  the  white  men  behave 
exactly  as  they  are  taught  in  their  books, 
do  they  not?  The  Arabs  come  here  for 
ivory  and  slaves,  and  we  have  seen  that  they 
do  not  always  speak  the  truth,  and  that  they 
buy  men  of  their  own  color  and  treat  them 
badly,  putting  them  in  chains  and  beating 

17 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


them.  The  white  men,  when  offered  slaves, 
refuse  them,  saying,  '  Shall  we  make  our 
brothers  slaves'?  No;  we  are  all  sons  of 
God.'  I  have  not  heard  a  white  man  tell  a 
lie  yet.  Speke  came  here,  behaved  well, 
and  went  his  way  home  with  his  brother 
Grant.  [Speke  and  Grant  were  earlier  ex- 
plorers in  Africa.]  They  bought  no  slaves, 
and  the  time  they  were  in  Uganda  they  were 
very  good.  Standee  came  here,  and  he 
would  take  no  slaves.  What  Arab  would 
have  refused  slaves  like  these  white  men? 
Though  we  deal  in  slaves,  it  is  no  reason 
why  it  should  not  be  bad ;  and  when  I  think 
that  the  Arabs  and  the  white  men  do  as  they 
are  taught,  I  say  that  the  white  men  are 
greatly  superior  to  the  Arabs,  and  I  think, 
therefore,  that  their  book  must  be  a  better 
book  than  Mohammed's,  and  of  all  that 
Standee  has  read  from  this  book  I  see  noth- 
ing too  hard  for  me  to  believe.  I  have 
listened,  to  it  all  well  pleased,  and  now  I 
ask  you,  shall  we  accept  this  book  or  Mo- 
hammed's book  as  our  guide?" 

18 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

Seeing  clearly  just  what  the  king  wanted, 
they  all  answered,  "We  will  take  the  white 
men's  book." 

Thus  it  was  that  Mutesa  announced  him- 
self a  follower  of  the  Christ  and  the  Chris- 
tian's Book.  He  promised  to  build  a 
church,  and  begged  that  other  white  men 
might  come  to  teach  him  and  his  people 
about  the  good  way. 

"Standee,"  he  said,  "say  to  the  white 
people,  when  you  write  to  them,  that  I  am 
like  a  man  sitting  in  darkness,  or  born  blind, 
and  that  all  I  ask  is  that  I  may  be  taught 
how  to  see,  and  I  shall  continue  a  Christian 
while  I  live." 

Such  an  appeal  Mr.  Stanley  could  not 
let  pass  imheeded,  and  the  letter  was  writ- 
ten to  the  Daily  Telegraph. 

But  the  newspaper  correspondent  had 
asked  a  very  hard  thing.  London  folk  had 
heard  before  of  King  Mutesa  of  Uganda. 
Two  earlier  travelers  had  told  very  differ- 
ent stories  of  this  great  heathen  monarch. 
Which  was  to  be  believed?    Thev  had  said 

19 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


that  in  Mutesa's  court  a  fair  trial  was  never 
known.  If  one  of  the  king's  chiefs  failed 
to  salute  his  majesty  properly,  his  head  was 
in  danger.  If  his  bark  cloth  dress  was  not 
tied  over  his  right  shoulder  according  to  the 
proper  fashion,  Mutesa  was  likely  to  order 
the  man  to  be  put  to  death.  In  an  instant 
every  one  near  the  offender  would  rise, 
drums  would  be  beaten,  drowning  the  man's 
cries  for  mercy,  and  the  unfortunate  vic- 
tim would  be  dragged  off  to  his  fate.  Even 
the  king's  three  or  four  hundred  wives 
lived  in  daily  fear  of  death  by  order  of 
their  master.  Such  was  the  king  whom 
Stanley  was  now  saying  wanted  Christian 
teachers.  Who  knew  but  that  he  might  not 
soon  tire  of  white  men  too,  and  order  their 
lives  also  to  be  taken? 

Then,  too,  the  young  men  of  England 
thought  of  the  long  and  dangerous  journey 
across  a  country  with  no  railroads.  They 
thought  of  the  wild  animals,  of  the  deadly 
hot  climate,  and  of  the  savage  and  cannibal 
chiefs  through  whose  countries  they  would 

20 


INTERVIEW  WITH  A  BLACK  KING 

pass.  They  pictured  the  loneliness  of  liv- 
ing so  many  months  away  from  all  their 
white  friends  and  loved  ones.  What  joy 
would  there  be  in  living  in  a  small  grass  hut 
with  mud  floors  and  no  windows'?  Why 
should  any  man,  who  might  some  day  be  an 
honored  clergyman  in  a  peaceful  town  ir. 
England,  go  to  this  uncivilized  land  and  be 
his  own  butcher,  baker,  and  candlestick- 
maker  ? 

Was  there  even  one  man  in  England  who 
would  take  Mr.  Stanley's  letter  seriously? 
Would  any  one  be  willing  to  leave  home  and 
friends  and  risk  his  life  just  because  a  black 
king  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  plotting  per- 
haps for  the  white  man's  life,  had  asked 
for  a  missionary  ? 

Moreover  one  man  could  not  go  alone.  A 
number  of  men  would  have  to  be  found  who 
would  go  in  a  party.  Thousands  of  dollars 
would  be  needed  for  traveling  expenses 
alone.  Was  this  undertaking  worth  all  it 
might  cost?  What  would  come  of  Mr. 
Stanley's  letter? 

21 


CHAPTER  II 

WHAT  HAPPENED  AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

TN  an  office  in  Salisbury  Square  in  Lon- 
-■-  don  a  small  group  of  men  read  Mr. 
Stanley's  newspaper  letter.  They  were  men 
who  had  been  chosen  to  gather  the  money 
given  for  missions  by  the  churches  and  to 
send  out  missionaries.  They  were  called 
secretaries  of  the  Church  Missionary  So- 
ciety. 

"Is  there  anything  we  can  do  for  King 
Mutesa, ' '  they  said  to  one  another  ?  "  If  he 
is  truly  longing  to  be  taught  about  God,  will 
it  not  be  a  crime  to  refuse  to  send  some  one 
to  tell  him  1  Even  if  he  is  not  sincere,  ought 
we  not  to  act  as  if  he  were?  But  who  has 
the  heart  to  ask  any  young  man  to  go? 
And  who  would  be  willing  to  give  money  for 
the  undertaking?" 

22 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

Discouraged  by  the  difficulties  they  saw, 
yet  unwilling  to  drop  the  matter  carelessly, 
the}r  locked  the  office  doors  and  knelt  to- 
gether to  ask  the  Father  to  tell  them  what 
He  wanted  them  to  do.  Not  long  did  they 
wait  for  an  answer  to  their  prayers.  The 
third  day  after  Mr.  Stanley's  article  was 
published,  a  letter  came  addressed  to  Mr. 
Hutchinson,  Secretary  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society,  which  showed  that  some  one 
else  had  the  needs  of  Uganda  in  mind. 

"Dear  Mr.  Hutchinson,"  it  read,  "Often 
have  I  thought  of  the  people  in  the  interior 
of  Africa  in  the  region  of  Uganda,  and  I 
have  longed  and  prayed  for  the  time  to  come 
when  the  Lord  would  open  the  door  so  that 
heralds  of  the  gospel  might  enter  the  coun- 
try. The  appeal  of  Stanley  to  the  Chris- 
tian Church  from  Mutesa  's  capital,  seems  to 
show  that  the  time  has  come  for  the  sol- 
diers of  the  cross  to  make  an  advance  into 
that  region.  If  the  Committee  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society  are  prepared  at 
once  and  with  energy  to  start  a  mission  to 

23 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Victoria  Lake,  I  shall  gladly  give  you  £5,000 
[about  $25,000]  with  which  to  begin. 
"I  desire  to  be  known  in  this  matter  only 

'An  Unprofitable  Servant.' 

(Lukexvii.10)." 

The  hearts  of  the  committeemen  beat  fast 
as  they  read  the  letter  through.  It  all 
seemed  so  wonderful.  "God  must  be  in 
this,"  they  said  to  one  another,  "God  must 
be  in  this.  He  must  have  touched  the  heart 
of  Mutesa  and  made  him  want  to  ask  for 
missionaries:  he  must  have  told  Stanley  to 
send  the  plea  on  to  England:  and  he  must 
have  put  it  in  the  heart  of  this  Christian 
man  of  wealth,  whose  name  we  do  not  know, 
to  make  this  generous  gift.  Who  are  we 
that  we  should  stand  back  and  say  to  God, 
'No,  we  are  afraid  to  do  our  part  to  help.'  " 

They  began  to  study  their  geographies, 
and  to  read  magazine  articles  and  books  of 
travel  that  told  about  Uganda  and  the  way 
to  go  there.  By  the  time  a  week  of  such 
thought  and  prayer  had  passed,  they  decided 

24 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

that  they  would  send  letters  to  different 
newspapers  asking  for  men  and  money. 
Soon  another  gift  of  £5,000  [$25,000]  was 
made.  This  encouraged  them  to  work  and 
pray  for  even  more.  How  glad  they  were, 
not  many  days  later,  when  they  found  that 
the  sum  of  £24,000  in  all  [$120,000]  was 
ready  to  be  used! 

These,  however,  were  not  the  only  letters 
which  came  to  make  them  glad.  Some  were 
from  men  who  had  no  money  to  give,  but 
who  wanted  to  give  their  lives.  One  was 
from  a  retired  officer  of  the  British  navy, 
Lieutenant  G.  Shergold  Smith.  One  was 
from  an  Irish  architect,  Mr.  O'Neill;  an- 
other, from  a  minister,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson ; 
another  from  Mr.  Clark,  an  engineer;  and 
another  from  Mr.  "William  Robertson,  an 
artisan;  and  still  another  from  Dr.  John 
Smith,  a  physician  of  Edinburgh.  All 
these  men  wanted  to  go,  and  the  secretaries 
at  the  office  said  they  would  be  glad  to  send 
them.  Another,  however,  a  carpenter,  Mr. 
James  Robertson,  they  refused  to  send  be- 

25 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


cause  of  his  poor  health ;  but,  having  already 
sold  out  his  business,  he  said  he  would  go 
and  pay  his  own  expenses.  These  seven 
men,  with  one  other,  made  up  the  party  who 
in  answer  to  Stanley's  newspaper  appeal 
sailed  a  few  months  later  for  Mutesa  's  land. 

This  other  was  the  youngest  of  them  all 
— a  Scotchman  named  Alexander  Mackay. 
[He  pronounced  his  name,  Mack-i.]  He 
wrote  from  Germany  where  he  was  gaining 
a  reputation  for  himself  as  one  of  the  head 
men  in  an  important  machine  factory.  His 
business  was  to  draw  plans  for  large  en- 
gines. 

Even  when  a  boy,  Alexander  had  always 
been  fond  of  machinery.  Living  in  a  little 
Scottish  village,  when  a  lad  of  about  twelve 
years,  he  used  often  to  walk  four  miles  to 
the  nearest  railway  station  and  four  miles 
back  just  to  see  the  engine  puff  into  town 
hauling  a  train  of  cars,  stop  a  minute  or  two, 
and  then  steam  off  again.  His  good-nat- 
ured fun  made  him  a  great  favorite  at  the 
village  blacksmith's,  at  the  gas  works,  the 

26 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

carding-mill,  and  the  carpenters'  shops. 
Often  he  would  visit  these  places,  for  he 
liked  to  watch  the  men  and  the  machinery  as 
they  did  their  work. 

While  he  was  at  grammar-school  in  a 
larger  town,  he  could  almost  never  be  in- 
duced to  go  on  holiday  excursions  with  the 
other  lads.  Instead,  he  would  slip  away  to 
a  photographer's  where  he  would  learn  how 
to  use  a  camera,  or  he  would  find  his  way  to 
the  shipyards  to  watch  the  builders  as  they 
covered  the  steel  ribs  with  timbers,  placed 
the  masts,  and  sewed  the  rigging  for  fishing 
schooners.  During  his  college  course,  too, 
those  studies  were  most  to  his  liking  in 
which  he  could  make  something  with  his 
hands. 

His  father  wanted  him  to  be  a  clergyman, 
but  the  boy  did  not  favor  the  suggestion. 
He  was,  however,  a  true  Christian.  The 
thought  of  going  as  a  missionary  to  some 
heathen  land  came  to  him  when  a  child. 
His  father  used  to  talk  with  him  about  the 
new  discoveries  in  Central  Africa,  and  his 

27 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


mother  often  told  him  stories  about  mission- 
aries. 

More  than  a  year  before  Mr.  Stanley's 
plea  was  published,  Mackay  had  read  an  ap- 
peal for  Christian  doctors  to  go  to  Madagas- 
car. Although  he  knew  that  thousands  of 
Christians  on  that  island  had  suffered  death 
as  martyrs,  he  purposed,  if  it  seemed  to  be 
God's  wish  for  him  to  do  so,  to  go  to  Mada- 
gascar as  an  " engineering  missionary." 
By  this  he  meant  that  he  wanted  to  go  to 
that  uncivilized  island  to  teach  the  natives 
to  build  roads,  bridges,  railways,  to  work 
mines,  and  to  learn  to  use  various  kinds  of 
machinery,  and  so  help  them  to  become 
more  useful  Christians.  A  strange  sort  of 
missionary,  you  say.  This  is  what  many  of 
his  friends  thought,  too ;  for  they  had  never 
before  heard  of  a  mechanic  becoming  a  mis- 
sionary ;  but  it  did  not  change  Mackay 's  pur- 
pose. He  began  at  once  to  prepare  for  his 
work  by  studying  the  language  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Madagascar. 

This  plan,  however,  was  changed  for  a  bet- 
28 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

ter  one.  On  a  bitter  cold  night,  during  the 
Christmas  holidays  of  1875,  he  finished 
reading  Stanley's  book,  Hoir  I  Found  Liv- 
ingstone. Laying  the  book  on  the  table,  he 
noticed  an  old  copy  of  the  Edinburgh  Daily 
Review.  His  eyes  fell  on  the  words  "  Henry 
Wright,  Honorary  Secretarj^  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society."  His  curiosity  was  at 
once  awakened.  He  had  found  one  of  the 
appeals  sent  out  by  the  secretaries  in  Lon- 
don asking  for  men  to  go  out  as  missionaries 
to  Mutesa's  kingdom.  Mr.  Mackay,  then 
and  there,  although  it  was  after  midnight, 
wrote  to  Mr.  Wright  offering  to  go  to  help 
teach  Mutesa's  people  how  to  be  useful 
Christians. 

"My  heart  burns  for  the  deliverance  of 
Africa,"  he  wrote,  "and  if  you  can  send  me 
to  any  one  of  these  regions  which  Living- 
stone and  Stanley  have  found  to  be  groan- 
ing under  the  curse  of  the  slave-hunter  I 
shall  be  very  glad!" 

So  it  all  came  about  that  in  the  quiet,  old 
committee-room  of  the  Church  Missionary 

29 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


House  one  April  day  the  eight  young  men 
bound  for  Uganda  said  good-by  to  the  com- 
mitteemen who  stayed  at  home.  One  of  the 
secretaries,  speaking  for  the  rest,  gave  the 
young  men  their  last  instructions.  Then 
each  of  the  party  replied  in  his  turn.  Mr. 
Mackay  being  the  youngest  was  the  last  to 
speak. 

" There  is  one  thing,"  he  said,  " which  my 
brethren  have  not  said,  and  which  I  want 
to  say.  I  want  to  remind  the  committee 
that  within  six  months  they  will  probably 
hear  that  one  of  us  is  dead."  He  paused, 
and  there  was  a  solemn  stillness  in  the  room. 
Then,  he  went  on:  "Yes;  is  it  at  all  likely 
that  eight  Englishmen  should  start  for  Cen- 
tral-Africa, and  all  be  alive  six  months  af- 
ter %  One  of  us,  at  least — it  may  be  I —  will 
surely  fall  before  that.  But,"  he  added, 
"what  I  want  to  say  is  this;  when  the  news 
comes,  do  not  be  cast  down,  but  send  some 
one  else  immediately  to  take  the  vacant 
place." 

By  the  end  of  April  all  the  party  had 
30 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

sailed.  The  good-bys  were  hard  to  say. 
Friends,  mothers,  fathers,  brothers,  sisters, 
and,  for  some,  their  wives  and  children,  they 
might  never  see  again.  Yet  their  gladness 
was  more  than  their  sorrow  as  the  steam- 
ship put  out  to  sea.  They  believed  that  the 
Heavenly  Father  was  their  pilot.  He  had 
raised  the  money.  He  had  called  his  work- 
ers, and  they  were  now  going  with  him. 

Five  long  weeks  at  sea!  Then  down  by 
the  equator  a  few  miles  off  the  east  coast  of 
Africa,  the  voyagers  at  last  sighted  the 
island  of  Zanzibar.  There  in  the  city  of 
Zanzibar,  the  busiest  seaport  in  East  Africa, 
they  landed. 

But  the  kingdom  of  Mutesa  lay  about  a 
thousand  miles  beyond.  By  foot  or  on  don- 
key's back,  they  must  travel  through  a  wild 
tropical  country  for  a  distance  as  far  as 
from  Washington  to  Chicago.  Even  then 
the  next  to  the  largest  lake  in  all  the  world 
— and  a  very  stormy  and  treacherous  one  it 
is,  too, — would  still  separate  them  from  Mu- 
tesa's  land. 

31 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


In  these  days  of  railroads  and  telegraphs, 
it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  hard  it  was 
in  1876  to  prepare  for  a  journey  of  one 
thousand  miles  into  the  interior  of  Africa. 
On  leaving  the  coast,  the  missionaries  would 
say  good-by  to  stores  of  every  kind.  Noth- 
ing could  be  purchased  at  any  price  in  the 
country  through  which  they  would  march 
except  food  such  as  the  black  men  ate, 
elephants'  tusks,  animal  skins,  bark  cloth, 
and  slaves.  Even  these  could  not  be  bought 
with  silver  and  gold  or  with  paper  money. 
African  chiefs  would  insist  on  bead  money 
and  on  such  things  as  red  caps,  handker- 
chiefs, cloth,  wire,  guns,  and  gunpowder  for 
pay. 

Before  setting  sail  from  Liverpool,  the 
missionaries  had  spent  weeks  in  hurrying 
to  and  fro  from  store  to  store.  They  had 
ordered  books,  clothing,  medicines,  ham- 
mers, nails,  spades,  saws,  hatchets,  axes, 
chisels,  a  forge  and  bellows,  shovels,  grind- 
stones, a  pump.  These  do  not  cover  half  the 
list.     Perhaps  the  most  unique  articles  in 

32 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

their  outfit,  were  a  printing-press,  a  magic 
lantern,  a  music-box  and  a  steam  launch. 

Much  of  the  bulkiest  baggage  was  left  to 
be  purchased  in  Zanzibar.  No  trudging 
around,  however,  from  store  to  store  this 
time.  As  soon  as  the  news  spread  about  the 
town  that  a  party  of  Britishers  had  arrived 
bound  for  Victoria  Lake,  merchants  from 
India  and  Arabs  began  to  call  on  them.  A 
list  of  the  articles  needed  was  carefully 
made  out  and  the  goods  ordered. 

After  several  days,  there  came  to  the  house 
where  the  missionaries  were  staying,  a  num- 
ber of  half-naked  Indian  coolies.  In  one  of 
the  houses  surrounding  the  courtyard,  they 
stacked  scores  of  bundles  of  varied  shapes 
and  sizes.  First,  came  boxes  of  dried  foods, 
pans,  kettles,  and  dishes.  Most  of  the 
camping  outfit  was  purchased  in  Zanzibar, 
including  tents,  white  umbrellas,  waterproof 
sheets,  blankets,  cots,  and  stools. 

The  largest  bundles  of  all,  however,  were 
filled  with  African  money.  By  the  door  were 
lying  piles  of  small  change — handkerchiefs 

33 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


and  red  caps.  Over  in  one  corner,  the  cool- 
ies were  rolling  $50  bills — bales  of  colored 
and  striped  cotton  cloth.  Then  came  the 
bead  money — bags  of  large  beads  and  small 
beads,  oval  beads  and  round  beads,  some 
blue,  some  red,  some  green,  and  some  white. 
At  last,  the  coolies,  panting  with  heat, 
lugged  in  the  heaviest  bundles  of  all — 
huge  coils  of  brass  wire — thousands  and 
thousands  of  yards.  Handkerchiefs,  red 
caps,  cloth,  beads,  and  brass  wire,  together 
weighing  hundreds  of  pounds,  were  all  to  be 
used  as  money. 

The  baggage  being  collected,  the  next 
problem  was  how  to  get  it  carried  across  the 
country  to  Mutesa's  kingdom.  Having 
nothing  but  crooked  narrow  trails  for  road- 
ways, the  missionaries  were  obliged  to  travel 
as  the  Arabs  had  always  done  before  them. 
This  meant  picking  their  way  on  foot  sin- 
gle file,  mile  after  mile,  and  using  black  men 
as  beasts  of  burden. 

Now,  even  sturdy  black  baggage-carriers 
will  not  march  with  a  burden  on  their  heads 

34 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

weighing  more  than  about  sixty  pounds.  So 
all  the  white  men's  freight  had  to  be  taken 
from  trunks  and  boxes  and  repacked.  The 
boxes  were  opened,  their  contents  spread  out 
on  the  ground  in  piles  of  the  size  and  weight 
of  one  man's  load.  Then  shaping  each  pile, 
if  possible,  into  the  form  of  a  large  pillow- 
bolster,  they  wrapped  it  in  several  thick- 
nesses of  cloth  and  tied  it  tightly  with  strong 
rope.  When  neither  rain  nor  rough  hand- 
ling could  harm  what  was  within  the  wrap- 
pings, the  bundles  were  ready  for  the  heads 
of  the  African  porters. 

While  some  of  the  missionary  band  were 
busy  packing  supplies,  others  were  toiling 
at  perhaps  the  hardest  work  of  all.  Trudg- 
ing from  hut  to  hut  in  the  negro  quarter  of 
Zanzibar,  they  were  hiring  baggage-carriers. 
Others  having  crossed  the  channel  to  the 
mainland  were  plodding  about  from  village 
to  village  working  at  the  same  trying  task; 
for  as  many  as  five  hundred  porters  were 
needed.  For  many  weeks  this  search 
dragged  along.    Finally,  it  was  decided  to 

35 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


divide  the  missionary  party  into  four  cara- 
vans, so  that  some  could  begin  the  march  be- 
fore all  of  the  five  hundred  baggage-carriers 
were  found. 

Two  of  the  caravans  had  not  yet  started 
when  the  "angel  of  death"  visited  the  camp. 
"Within  six  months  you  will  probably  hear 
that  one  of  us  is  dead,"  Mr.  Mackay  had 
said  to  the  committee  before  leaving  Eng- 
land. Within  four  months  the  prophecy 
was  fulfilled.  On  a  little  island  off  the 
coast,  a  grave  was  dug  for  the  body  of  James 
Robertson  the  carpenter,  who  had  gone  with 
the  party  at  his  own  expense.  He  had 
given  his  life  for  a  king  and  a  people  he  had 
never  seen. 

The  next  to  the  last  caravan  to  leave  the 
coast  was  Mr.  Mackay 's.  Crowds  of  peo- 
ple from  the  town  of  Bagamoyo  flocked  to 
see  the  white  man  and  his  procession  file 
out  of  the  village.  A  bugle  call  had  sum- 
moned those  hired  for  the  journey  to  gather 
before  the  white  man's  quarters.  A  man's 
load  was  given  to  each  carrier  and  his  place 

36 


Pw 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

in  the  procession  assigned.  First  marched 
a  half-dozen  soldiers,  who  never  had  even 
carried  guns  until  Mr.  Mackay  began  to 
train  them.  Then  came  the  leader  of  the 
porters  with  a  load  on  his  shoulders  twice  as 
heavy  as  any  one  else  carried.  He  was  fol- 
lowed by  about  two  hundred  men  loaded 
with  their  sixty  poimd  pillow-bolsters.  Be- 
hind them,  straggled  the  wives  of  a  few  por- 
ters, an  aged  father,  and  a  handful  of  small 
boys.  Next  walked  a  line  of  four  donkeys 
laden  with  parts  of  a  steam  launch,  other 
machinery  and  tools,  and  much  of  the  cloth. 
After  them,  marched  Mr.  Hartwell,  a 
sailor,  who  was  now  Mr.  Mackay 's  only 
white  companion.  He  was  followed  by  a 
cook,  Mr.  Mackay 's  personal  servant,  three 
stoker  boys,  an  interpreter,  an  African  ma- 
son, and  a  carpenter.  Last  of  all  came  a 
group  of  soldiers,  Mr.  Mackay,  and  a  dog. 
It  was  an  interesting  procession  for  the 
townspeople  to  watch,  for  marching  single 
file,  they  stretched  along  the  path  for  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile. 

37 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Talking,  laughing,  and  singing,  the  long 
line  wound  here  and  there  through  the  tall 
jungle  grass,  down  some  little  valley  or  up 
a  tiny  hill.  But  the  sun  shone  hot  above 
them,  and  the  path  was  hard  and  dry.  In 
an  hour  or  so,  the  heat  became  oppressive. 
The  orderly  line  grow  irregular.  Some 
straggled  behind,  blaming  Mr.  Mackay  for 
their  discomfort.  Those  accustomed  to 
march  walked  steadily  on  toward  a  river 
about  three  miles  distant  where  they  knew 
they  could  rest,  but  some  of  the  inexperi- 
enced ones  were  already  lying  flat  on  the 
ground  crying  for  water  and  bewailing  that 
they  had  ever  been  such  fools  as  to  leave 
their  homes. 

During  the  first  few  days,  the  caravan 
proceeded  very  slowly.  The  men  insisted 
on  marching  only  an  hour  or  two  in  the 
morning  and  on  resting  all  the  next  day. 
By  promising  higher  wages  if  they  would 
march  longer  each  day,  Mr.  Mackay  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  them  to  march  from  sun- 
rise or  soon  after  until  about  noon. 

38 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 


The  country  through  which  they  passed 
varied  greatly  from  day  to  day.  Some- 
times they  pushed  their  way  through  fields 
of  grass  as  tall  as  themselves  or  even  higher 
and  having  stalks  almost  as  thick  as  sugar- 
cane. Every  now  and  then  they  were 
startled  by  a  hippopotamus  or  an  antelope 
scared  from  its  hiding-place  in  the  heavy 
grass. 

Starting  off  again,  they  came  to  a  swamp 
more  beautiful  to  look  at  than  to  wade 
through.  It  was  filled  with  large  graceful 
ferns  and  beautiful  pink  flowers.  At  night 
it  was  alive  with  fireflies.  The  missionaries 
thought  this  sight  worth  going  hundreds  of 
miles  to  see.  They  also  passed  through 
fields  of  millet  growing  to  a  height  of  six- 
teen or  eighteen  feet.  At  another  place, 
they  were  refreshed  by  the  cool  shade  of  a 
park-like  forest.  The  giant  cacti  and  eu- 
phorbia trees  made  it  seem  very  different 
from  the  woodlands  at  home.  They  discov- 
ered gorgeous  butterflies  and  many  birds  of 
brilliant  plumage  that  their  friends  in  Eng- 

39 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


land  had  never  seen.  Sometimes  the  for- 
est changed  to  jungle.  Then  with  an  ax 
and  hatchet  foot  by  foot  they  had  to  slash 
a  wider  path  in  front  of  them,  before  the 
donkeys  could  wedge  their  way  between  the 
two  walls  of  underbrush  on  either  side. 

You  would  have  enjoyed  seeing  how  Mr. 
Mackay  fed  his  large  family  of  two  hundred 
blacks.  Reaching  a  place  near  a  water  sup- 
ply where  it  was  planned  that  the  caravan 
would  spend  the  night,  tents  were  pitched 
and  the  goods  piled  under  a  tree  or  in  a 
tent.  When  in  a  district  where  wild  beasts 
were  common,  a  fence  of  thorns  was  built 
round  the  camp.  As  soon  as  this  work  was 
completed,  the  head  men  of  the  caravan  col- 
lected before  Mr.  Mackay 's  tent  and  cried 
"Poslio,  Bwana"  ["Rations,  Master."] 
Instead  of  handing  out  food  to  them,  he  had 
a  bale  of  calico  brought  to  him  and,  meas- 
uring it  by  the  length  of  the  forearm  from 
the  elbow  to  the  tip  of  the  middle  finger,  he 
gave  each  one  eight  of  these  lengths  for 
every  sixteen  men  of  whom  he  had  charge. 

40 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

"With  these  pieces  of  calico  for  money  these 
men  went  to  the  natives  of  the  place  and 
bought  their  own  food. 

4 'To  be  a  father  to  such  a  large  family  of 
children,"  wrote  Mr.  Mackay,  "every  day 
crying  out  'Poshol'  which  means,  'Give  us 
our  daily  bread,'  is  by  no  means  a  joke. 
Their  little  disputes  and  complaints  I  have 
to  settle.  My  interpreter  is  poor  in  English 
and  sometimes  says  just  the  opposite  of 
what  I  mean.  Still  we  get  on  wonderfully 
well." 

Water  at  times  was  harder  to  find  than 
food.  More  than  once  the  caravan  was 
obliged  to  set  up  camp  and  with  empty 
water-bottles  to  walk  forth  in  seach  of  some- 
thing with  which  to  quench  their  thirst. 
When  no  spring  could  be  found,  the  natives 
would  dig  holes  in  the  ground  which  would 
usually  fill  with  a  muddy  looking  liquid  re- 
sembling soap-suds.  With  such  as  this 
blacks  and  whites  alike  had  to  be  content. 

Fortunately,  Mr.  Mackay  had  very  few 
sick  men  to  take  care  of.     In  a  caravan  a 

,41 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


little  in  front  of  his,  smallpox  was  raging 
severely,  and  here  and  there  along  the  road 
lay  the  bodies  of  men  who  had  died  on  the 
march.  In  order  to  escape  the  tracks  of 
this  caravan,  Mr.  Mackay  left  the  regular 
road  and  for  two  days  he  and  his  men  waded 
knee-deep  through  a  mixture  of  black  mud 
and  water. 

Through  his  attempt  to  hustle  the  slow- 
going  African,  Mr.  Mackay  overtaxed  him- 
self and  was  taken  sick  with  the  African 
fever.  For  a  few  days  he  was  too  weak  to 
walk  and  was  obliged  to  ride  one  of  the  don- 
keys that  had  been  carrying  baggage.  At 
last,  however,  the  feverish  coast-plains  were 
left  behind.  Gladly  they  climbed  the  moun- 
tains to  the  little  town  of  Mpwapwa.  They 
had  traveled  only  a  little  farther  than  from 
New  York  to  Boston;  yet  the  march  had 
dragged  along  for  six  weeks. 

At  Mpwapwa  three  of  the  missionary  car- 
avans met.  For  a  few  days  the  white  men 
rested  and  prepared  for  the  journey  ahead. 
How  they  enjoyed  their  after-dinner  chats 

42 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 

as  they  sat  together  in  one  of  the  tents  tell- 
ing the  experiences  of  the  march ! 

Only  a  few  days  at  Mpwapwa  and  then 
two  of  the  caravans  are  off  again — made  up 
of  Dr.  Smith,  Mr.  Mackay,  and  over  three 
hundred  baggage-carriers.  By  their  first 
Sunday,  they  overtook  another  of  the  car- 
avans ahead,  led  by  Lieutenant  Smith,  the 
old  naval  officer. 

For  thirty  or  forty  miles  beyond  them 
stretched  a  dreary  plateau  covered  with  a 
thick,  low  jungle.  Not  a  human  being  lived 
in  all  this  lonely  forest  and  the  caravan 
could  find  neither  food  nor  water  except 
what  they  carried  with  them  in  knapsacks 
and  water-bottles.  After  days  of  this  tire- 
some march,  they  entered  the  wide,  open 
land  of  Ugogo.  Here  every  few  miles  was 
a  new  village ;  and  with  every  group  of  vil- 
lages they  found  a  new  chief.  Each  chief 
insisted  that  to  traA^el  through  his  country 
was  a  privilege,  and  the  white  man  would 
have  to  pay  for  it.  The  paying  of  this  toll, 
or  hong  a  as  they  call  it,  added  not  only  a 

43 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


great  deal  of  expense  to  caravan-travel,  but 
also  caused  many  annoying  delays. 

Their  experience  with  one  of  the  chiefs 
of  Ugogo  will  show  something  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  were  treated  in  many  vil- 
lages. A  short  distance  from  the  chief's 
village,  the  caravan  encamped.  The  follow- 
ing morning  two  of  the  more  intelligent  Af- 
ricans were  sent  to  call  on  the  chief,  and  to 
take  him  a  gift  of  some  cloth.  They  found 
a  monarch  much  soiled  with  dirt  and  grease 
sitting  on  a  stool  in  his  wattled  hut  drinking 
pombe.  He  received  the  cloth,  but  de- 
manded a  great  deal  more.  Fifty  cloths, 
he  insisted  was  none  too  much.  The  mes- 
sengers claimed  that  such  a  demand  was  rob- 
bery and  hour  after  hour  they  quarreled 
with  him.  At  nightfall  the  messengers  re- 
turned to  camp  and  reported,  "The  chief 
is  sitting  at  pombe,  and  won't  hear  reason. 
He  says,  'The  white  man  is  a  great  sultan 
in  his  own  country,  and  he  must  pay  a  big 
hong  a.' " 

The  next  morning,  they  returned  to  the 
44 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 


mud  palace  and  again  tried  to  reason  with 
the  stubborn  chief.  Later  in  the  day,  Lieu- 
tenant Smith  himself  entered  his  majesty's 
presence  and  added  his  word  of  protest. 
Finally  the  chief  agreed  to  receive  forty- 
five  bales  of  cloth. 

The  troublesome  matter  being  settled, 
Lieutenant  Smith  thought  he  would  enter- 
tain the  chief  with  some  of  the  white  man's 
wonders.  Taking  a  match  box  from  his 
pocket,  he  struck  a  light.  The  chief  was 
frightened,  or  pretended  to  be,  and  cried, 
"The  white  man  is  trying  to  kill  me!" 
Bushing  from  his  hut,  he  disappeared. 
Later  he  sent  to  the  missionaries'  camp  to 
say  that  for  such  a  serious  offense  they 
would  have  to  pay  as  a  forfeit  twenty-five 
bales  of  cloth  more  than  had  already  been 
given. 

So  the  privilege  of  camping  for  three  days 
in  this  chief's  realm,  cost  the  missionaries 
seventy  bales  of  cloth  or  about  $100. 
When  the  cloth  was  paid  the  big  drum  of  the 
village  was  beaten  and  the  caravan  knew 

45 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


that  they  were  at  liberty  to  proceed  on  their 
way. 

On  entering  TTgogo,  Mr.  Mackay's  fever 
had  returned  and  for  miles  he  had  to  be 
carried  in  a  hammock.  There  being  good 
water  in  the  land  of  this  ruler  he  would  like 
to  have  stayed  longer  in  his  domain.  He 
feared  however,  that  more  honga  would  be 
charged  him  if  he  remained. 

What  should  he  do?  Just  beyond,  lay  a 
nine  days '  wilderness  and  immediately  after 
that  was  another  that  would  take  three  days 
to  cross.  No  water  and  no  food  were  to  be 
found  in  these  jungles,  and  the  caravan's 
supply  of  provisions  was  very  low.  Lieu- 
tenant Smith  and  Dr.  Smith  urged  him  to 
return  to  the  coast.  Hard  as  it  was  to  turn 
back,  Mr.  Mackay  finally  yielded  to  the  coun- 
sel of  his  friends. 

Lying  in  a  hammock  swung  from  the 
shoulders  of  two  strong  men  Mr.  Mackay 
was  carried  back  to  the  town  of  Mpwapwa 
over  the  path  by  which  he  had  just  come. 
Eight  others  carried  his  tent,  instruments, 

46 


AFTER  THE  NEWS  WAS  READ 


clothes,  cooking  utensils,  and  some  cloth  with 
which  to  buy  food. 

At  one  time,  he  became  so  weak  that  he 
expected  to  die.  Calling  for  a  writing  desk, 
he  mixed  an  ink  powder  and  commenced 
what  he  thought  would  be  his  last  letter  on 
earth.  But  during  the  night,  a  change  for 
the  better  came.  Mr.  Mackay  said  a  bunch 
of  home  letters  had  been  his  best  medicine. 
In  eleven  days  he  walked  the  entire  distance 
from  Mpwapwa  to  the  coast,  and  on  reaching 
Zanzibar  he  was  almost  a  well  man. 

It  was  now  the  last  of  November,  1876. 
One  year  had  passed  since  Mr.  Stanley's  let- 
ter had  appeared  in  the  Daily  Telegraph. 
A  band  of  eight  young  men  from  Great 
Britain  had  started  for  Mutesa  's  land.  One 
had  laid  down  his  life  at  the  very  gateway 
of  the  continent.  One  having  started  inland 
had  been  stricken  with  fever  and  was  obliged 
to  begin  the  march  anew.  One  had  settled 
at  Mpwapwa  to  start  a  mission  there.  The 
other  five  with  their  hundreds  of  black  car- 
riers were  plodding  along  through  jungle 

47 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


and  swamp  and  over  mountain  and  plain 
toward  Victoria  Lake. 

But  what  of  King  Mutesa  %  Since  ' '  Stam- 
lee"  left,  no  word  had  come  from  the  white 
men.  Were  they  going  to  leave  him  "sit- 
ting in  darkness ' '  %  When  would  they  ever 
come  to  teach  him  "how  to  see"? 


48 


CHAPTER  III 

JUNGLE  ROADS,  OX-CARTS,  AND  FLY  BITES 

SINCE  Mr.  Mackay  landed  in  Zanzibar 
six  months  had  come  and  gone.  And 
what  had  he  accomplished?  A  three  hun- 
dred mile  march  inland  only  to  be  made  all 
over  again !  A  new  outfit  must  now  be  pur- 
chased; a  new  caravan  of  porters  must  be 
hired;  and  again  they  must  pick  their  way 
over  the  same  rough,  narrow  trail.  Weary 
as  Mr.  Mackay  was  of  this  snail-like  way  of 
traveling,  he  set  to  work  immediately  to  pre- 
pare for  a  second  caravan  journey. 

But  a  letter  from  England  changed  his 
plans.  The  secretaries  there,  having  heard 
of  Mackay 's  sickness,  wrote  that  he  must  not 
begin  the  march  into  the  interior  until  June, 
when  the  rainy  season  would  be  over.  In 
the  meantime,  they  said  he  might  see  what 

49 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


could  be  done  about  building  a  road  to 
Mpwapwa.  At  first  this  man  of  energy  was 
disappointed.  When  again  would  he  see  his 
friends,  he  thought,  and  how  much  longer 
must  he  wait  before  telling  King  Mutesa  of 
the  white  man 's  God  %  Yet,  without  a  com- 
plaint, he  was  ready  to  turn  road-builder. 

But  his  friends  up-country  sorely  needed 
fresh  supplies.  At  the  earliest  possible  mo- 
ment, he  must  gather  a  caravan  and,  with 
some  one  else  at  its  head,  he  must  send  it  off 
toward  Victoria  Lake.  The  story  is  again 
one  of  delays  and  hardships.  Compelled  to 
sail  three  hundred  miles  north  from  Zanzi- 
bar to  find  porters,  he  tramped  back  on  foot 
from  village  to  village  along  the  coast. 
What  discomforts  were  crowded  into  the 
three  months  he  spent  hiring  baggage-car- 
riers, no  one  but  Mr.  Mackay  himself  knew ! 

Writing  of  one  of  his  long  journeys,  he 
said:  "This  walk  was  much  harder  than 
any  I  have  made  before.  Days  of  man- 
grove swamp,  hours  of  wading  nearly  to  the 
waist,  and  occasional  swimming  across  rapid 

50 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

rivers  usually  gave  me  an  appetite  for  food 
and  rest.  I  had  only  a  man  (my  cook)  and 
a  boy  with  me,  so  that  I  had  to  dispense  with 
the  luxuries  of  a  tent,  bed,  change  of  cloth- 
ing, and  such  things.  I  often  got  a  hut  to 
sleep  in,  but  when  not,  I  enjoyed  sleeping  in 
the  open  air,  preferring  it  often  to  a  cow- 
stable  swarming  with  ants  and  similar  un- 
pleasant friends. ' ' 

Later  he  wrote  again :  "I  have  slept  in  all 
sorts  of  places — a  cow-stable,  a  sheep-cote,  a 
straw  hut  not  much  larger  than  a  dog-kennel, 
a  hen-house,  and  often  in  no  house  at  all.  So 
anything  suits  me,  provided  I  get  a  spot 
tolerably  clear  of  ants  and  mosquitoes.  Of 
all  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  none  could  have 
been  worse  than  that  of  the  black  ants !" 

Finally,  the  carriers  were  hired  and  the 
caravan  was  started  on  its  way  toward  Vic- 
toria Lake.  The  young  missionary,  how- 
ever, who  had  gathered  it  was  again  help- 
lessly ill  with  fever.  The  strain  of  the  three 
months  of  labor  had  proved  too  much  for 
him.     Had  it  not  been  for  the  kind  nursing 

51 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


of  white  friends  in  Zanzibar  his  life  story 
would  perhaps  have  ended  here. 

Six  weeks  later,  however,  he  was  out  of 
bed  and  enthusiastic  over  the  commonplace 
labor  of  building  a  road.  Having  hired 
forty  black  carriers,  besides  women  to  carry 
loads  and  men  to  drive  donkeys,  he  set  up  a 
camp  about  five  miles  from  the  coast  on  the 
top  of  a  hill  overlooking  a  small  town.  This 
seemed  a  most  desirable  spot  for  camping 
because  it  was  high  and  exposed  to  fresh 
breezes  from  both  the  sea  and  the  land. 
Here  Mr.  Mackay  planned  to  live  several 
weeks,  while  working  on  the  road  in  the 
neighborhood. 

Writing  from  this  camp,  he  said:  "I  sit 
at  present  like  Abraham  in  his  tent  door. 
My  servants,  my  flocks,  and  my  herds  are 
about  me.  I  am  well  again,  thank  God,  and 
camp  life  has  set  my  spirits  up.  My  horse, 
my  dog,  my  goat,  my  oxen,  and  donkeys, 
with  all  my  household  of  nearly  seventy  men 
and  women,  are  enough  to  feed,  and  quite 
enough  to  look  after  at  one  time. 

52 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

"My  working  gang  consists  of  011I37  about 
forty  men,  and  these  I  have  armed  with  the 
best  American  axes,  English  hatchets,  picks 
and  spades  and  saws.  All  these  tools  are  as 
new  to  them  as  they  are  to  the  natives  of  the 
villages  we  pass  through.  A  donkey's  load 
of  large  iron  nails  I  have  taken  with  me,  and 
plenty  of  hammers,  but  the  wood  is  as  a  rule 
too  hard  for  the  iron  to  enter.  For  such 
cases,  I  have  supplied  myself  with  a  large 
stock  of  strong  rope  of  cocoanut  fiber. 

' '  One  of  the  tools  I  brought  with  me  from 
England  proves  more  serviceable  than  all 
the  rest  together.  It  is  merely  a  two-foot 
grindstone  which  I  have  mounted  on  a 
wooden  frame.  Every  evening  when  we  re- 
turn from  work  in  time,  the  edges  of  the 
tools  are  applied  to  the  face  of  this  wonder- 
ful machine,  while  the  villagers  crowd 
around  as  anxiously  gazing  on  as  little 
Toddy  ever  did  when  he  wanted  'to  see  the 
w'eels  go  wound.'  " 

During  the  morning  hours  the  gang  would 
be  busy  with  axes,  saws,  and  shovels.     In  the 

53 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


open  and  level  country,  men  would  be  scat- 
tered here  and  there  over  the  trails,  each 
clearing  and  leveling  his  own  particular 
stretch  of  the  road.  Perhaps  far  behind  the 
rest,  would  be  five  or  six  workmen  toiling 
steadily  at  some  unusually  sturdy  tree, 
whose  hard  wood  was  too  much  for  the  saws 
and  axes. 

In  the  dense  jungles,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  men  would  be  huddled  together  like  colo- 
nies of  ants,  doing  their  hardest  work.  So 
thick  were  some  of  these  woodlands  that  the 
black  toilers  were  often  hidden  from  sight. 
According  to  Mr.  Mackay  even  a  cat  could 
scarcely  find  room  to  wedge  its  way  through 
the  matted  underbrush,  creepers,  and  trop- 
ical ferns.  "Where  a  narrow  trail  had  before 
been  cut  through  these  miles  of  jungle,  the 
branches  and  hanging  vines  were  so  closely 
interlaced  overhead  that  the  traveler  could 
scarcely  get  a  glimpse  of  the  blue  sky,  and 
would  be  walking,  as  it  were,  through  a 
damp,  leafy  tunnel.  To  saw  through  a  tree- 
trunk  in  such  a  tangled  mass,  seldom  meant 

54 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS     - 

that  the  tree  would  fall,  unless  the  matted 
undergrowth  were  first  slashed  away. 

Sometimes  they  shelved  out  a  footing 
around  the  brow  of  a  mountain;  sometimes 
they  had  to  cover  swampy  stretches  with 
layers  of  logs,  thus  making  a  corduroy  road. 
At  other  times  they  prepared  to  ford  streams 
by  grading  the  banks  on  either  side. 

Their  greatest  achievement  was  the  build- 
ing of  a  bridge  in  seven  days.  The  ignorant 
black  men  had  never  before  seen  any  kind 
of  a  bridge  for  wagon  traffic.  The  entire 
structure  was  built  of  wood  almost  as  hard 
as  iron  so  that  Mr.  Mackay  thought  that  it 
would  long  stand  against  the  attacks  of  white 
ants. 

These  negro  laborers,  like  most  of  their 
race,  worked  best  when  singing.  As  they 
chopped  and  shoveled  and  dug,  one  might 
have  heard  them  chant  this  song  made  up  for 
Mr.  Mackay 's  special  benefit : 

"Eh,  eh,  muzungu  mbaya, 
Tu  kati  miti, 
Twende  TJlaya." 
55 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Put  into  English  it  means : 
Is  not  the  white  man  very  bad, 
He  fells  to  the  ground  the  tall  trees, 
To  make  a  way  for  the  Englishman. 
Days,  weeks,  and  even  months  came  and 
went.     All  the  way  black  men  slashed  and 
sawed,    and    dug    and   leveled,    while    Mr. 
Mackay   rode   or   walked   back   and   forth 
among   them,    encouraging   them   to   their 
best  work.     Ofttimes  he  showed  them  what 
to  do  and  how  to  do  it  by  taking  shovel  or 
pick  in  hand  and  leveling  banks,  or  filling 
mud-holes.    He  provided  their  food,  plan- 
ned for  their  shelter  and  cared  for  their 
sick.    He  longed  to  be  able  to  talk  their 
language  that  he  might  tell  them  of  the 
God  who  cared  for  them  and  wanted  them 
to  live  useful  lives.    Finally,  after  one  hun- 
dred days  of  vigorous  toil,  the  road  was 
completed. 

Before  it  was  begun  there  was  only  a 
crooked,  narrow  trail  stretching  for  the  two 
hundred  and  thirty  miles  to  Mpwapwa.  At 
some    places,    donkeys    could    scarcely    be 

56 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

pulled  through  the  thick  jungle ;  porters  tore 
their  scant}'  clothes  or  cut  their  skius  on  the 
thorn}7  bushes;  and  for  lack  of  room  over- 
head, bales  of  cotton  had  to  be  dragged  along 
the  ground.  When  they  finished  the  work, 
there  was  a  clear  road  all  the  way  from  the 
coast  to  the  mountains  and  it  was  broad 
enough  to  allow  the  largest  ox-carts  to  pass 
each  other  at  any  point. 

The  natives  of  the  country  were  half 
pleased  and  half  alarmed  because  of  this 
wondrous  achievement.  Mr.  Mackay  wrote : 
"Passers-by  open  their  mouths  as  well  as 
their  eyes  at  the  njia  kubiva  [big  road]  of 
the  white  man ;  and  when  they  return  to  talk 
together  at  evening  in  their  villages,  the 
story  of  the  'big  road'  is  told,  and,  as  is  al- 
ways the  case  in  Africa,  with  enormous  ex- 
aggerations. To  the  chief  men,  however, 
the  story  is  not  always  pleasing ;  and  the  re- 
port is  being  widely  spread  that  the  English 
are  coming  to  take  possession  of  the  coun- 
try. The  chief  of  the  village  near  which  I 
made  the  bridge,  took  a  more  practical  view 

57 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


of  the  matter,  and  told  me  one  day,  with  all 
the  command  his  dirty  visage  could  assume, 
that  I  must  pay  a  hundred  dollars  for  cut- 
ting down  the  trees  in  his  territory.  I  told 
him  that  it  was  he  who  should  give  me  the 
hundred  dollars,  to  pay  my  men  for  making 
a  bridge  which  he  and  his  people  could  not 
make.  For  as  soon  as  I  was  gone,  he  would 
call  it  his  own,  and  probably  levy  honga 
from  those  caravans  which  cared  to  pay 
him. ' ' 

When  the  road  was  completed,  Mr. 
Mackay  and  his  men  returned  to  the  coast. 
"Now,"  he  thought,  "we  are  ready  to  travel 
in  a  civilized  way.  We  will  buy  oxen  and 
carts  for  carrying  our  baggage  and  we  will 
reach  Mpwapwa  in  half  the  time  it  took  us 
before.  The  experiment  has  been  tried  most 
successfully  in  South  Africa  by  other  men ; 
why  cannot  we  succeed  in  Central  Africa  ?" 

Most  enthusiastically  he  began  prepara- 
tions for  the  journey,  but  again  he  found 
that  he  had  a  difficult  task  before  him.  In 
the  first  place,  oxen,  which  never  before  had 

58 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

been  hitched  to  carts,  had  to  be  broken  in. 
Neither  could  men  be  found  who  had  ever 
before  driven  oxen,  so  that  new  hands  had  to 
be  taught.  This  was  harder,  Mr.  Mackay 
said,  than  to  teach  the  oxen  to  pull. 

Then,  too,  they  were  obliged  to  camp  in  a 
very  unhealthful  place.  Up  in  his  old  camp 
on  the  hill,  many  of  the  oxen  died  from  the 
poisonous  sting  of  the  tsetse  fly,  and  Mr. 
Mackay  with  his  men  and  flocks  and  herds 
was  obliged  to  move  to  the  plain.  For  at 
least  two  months  before  they  started  on  their 
journey,  it  rained  nearly  every  day.  The 
plain  became  a  quagmire  and  the  training  of 
oxen  and  men  had  to  stop. 

Waiting  so  long  at  the  coast  for  the  rainy 
season  to  pass,  Mr.  Mackay 's  men  grew  dis- 
contented and  unruly  and  some  of  them  de- 
serted him.  Also,  Mr.  Tytherleigh,  his  as- 
sistant who  had  lately  arrived  from  Eng- 
land, was  laid  low  with  a  severe  attack  of 
fever.  They  must  soon  travel  along  or 
many  others  also  would  be  sick. 

In  spite  of  the  rain  and  mud,  therefore, 
59 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


the  long  lumbering  caravan  moved  out  of 
the  town.  There  were  six  large  awkward 
carts  loaded  to  the  full  with  baggage. 
Teams  of  from  eight  to  twenty  oxen  were 
pulling  each  cart.  Many  more  oxen  were 
taken  as  reserves  to  fill  the  places  of  those 
which  might  be  injured  or  become  sick  on 
the  road.  In  all  there  were  as  many  as 
eighty  oxen.  To  drive  and  to  lead  these  ani- 
mals and  to  manage  the  brakes  on  the  carts 
required  thirty  men,  and  thirty  more  might 
have  been  seen  carrying  on  their  heads  bun- 
dles of  baggage.  Behind  the  carts  came  a 
flock  of  sheep  and  goats,  to  be  used  as.  food 
for  the  party,  and  also  five  donkeys  and  six 
dogs. 

Over  each  cart  waved  a  flag.  When  they 
camped  by  the  road  for  the  night,  a  flag 
waved  also  above  each  tent  door,  the  largest 
of  all  flying  over  Mr.  Mackay's  tent.  These 
were  not  the  national  flags  of  Great  Britain 
or  of  the  United  States ;  they  were  blue,  each 
with  a  large  red  cross  painted  on  its  center. 
The  African  heathen  could  not  understand 

60 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

what  they  meant,  but  any  Christian  will 
readily  guess  the  meaning  of  the  flags. 

After  ten  days  of  travel,  Mr.  Mackay  tells 
this  story  of  their  adventures:  "A  long 
time  without  practise,  on  account  of  the  rain 
and  mud,  had  put  the  oxen  out  of  trim,  so 
that  when  we  set  off  we  were  able  to  make 
only  a  few  hundred  yards '  progress  the  first 
day.  Next  day  more  rain  made  matters 
worse,  and  we  made  not  half  a  mile.  I  then 
resolved  to  remove  four  hundred  pounds  of 
baggage  from  each  cart.  After  a  couple  of 
days '  rearranging  loads,  we  got  a  fair  start, 
but  another  deluge  of  rain  caused  us  to  stop 
short  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  where  our  old 
camp  had  been.  Next  day  we  got  to  the  top 
of  the  hill,  and  have  since  then  made  a  little 
progress  when  it  was  fair. 

"After  ten  marching  days,  usually  with 
double  teams  in  each  cart,  and  wheels  down 
to  the  axle  in  mud,  we  are  camped  to-day 
only  ten  miles  from  the  coast.  I  have  re- 
solved, therefore,  to  send  back  two  of  the 
larger  carts  with  their  loads." 

61 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


About  two  weeks  later  [Christmas  Day, 
1877]  he  wrote  again:  "You  should  see  me 
every  day  with  clothes  bespattered  with  mud 
and  hands  black  like  a  chimney-sweep's 
catching  the  spokes  of  the  wheels  every  now 
and  then  as  they  get  into  holes,  and  yelling 
at  the  top  of  my  voice  to  the  oxen,  till  the 
forest  resounds.  So  much  yelling  have  I 
to  do  in  the  six  hours  we  march  a  day,  that 
when  I  get  into  camp  I  am  always  quite 
hoarse.  A  team  of  twenty-six  oxen,  fre- 
quently spanned  on  in  front  of  one  cart,  does 
need  good  shouting  and  lashing  to  get  them 
to  pull  together.  It  is  not  walking  with  my 
umbrella  or  riding  on  a  donkey  behind  a 
cart,  but  ever  getting  some  one  or  other  or 
all  the  carts  out  of  this  difficulty  and  the 
next.  My  men  are  far  from  skilful  in  the 
art  of  driving  long  teams  through  the  for- 
est, and  are  constantly  bringing  the  carts 
against  trees  or  stones  or  into  holes,  not  in- 
frequently upsetting  them  altogether.  It 
is  hopeless,  for  instance,  in  trying  to  cross  a 
river,  to  find  one  ox  lie  down,  another  break 

62 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

loose  and  run  away,  several  more  with  their 
faces  to  the  cart,  where  their  tails  should  be, 
and  so  on.  One's  patience  gets  sorely  tried 
by  such  occurrences,  but  the  only  way  is  pa- 
tiently to  arrange  all  and  try  again. ' ' 

Here  are  some  lines  from  another  letter: 
"A  terrible  scorpion  crawled  over  me  just 
now.  I  should  like  you  to  see  half  the  hor- 
rors of  the  kind  I  see  in  a  day — snakes  and 
ants  on  the  ground  below  till  one  shudders 
from  top  to  toe,  and  terrible  biting,  sting- 
ing, huge  flies  all  above  and  about,  drawing 
blood  at  every  bite.  Last  night  I  was  busy 
sleeping,  when  just  at  my  ear  a  terrible 
growl  of  a  hyena  made  me  spring  to  my  feet, 
seize  my  rifle  and  fire ;  but '  Bobby, '  my  dog, 
was  before  me,  and  set  up  such  a  furious 
bark  that  the  beast  skulked  off  before  I  had 
time  to  present  it  with  a  bullet.  I  dare  say 
you  think  it  a  dastardly  kind  of  life,  to  lie 
with  a  revolver  under  one's  pillow  and  a 
rifle  at  one's  side,  but  it  is  necessary  here, 
for  anything  may  happen  at  any  moment, 
and  it  is  best  to  be  ready." 

63 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Sometimes  Mr.  Mackay's  experiences 
were  more  amusing  than  dangerous.  One 
night  he  was  sleeping  soundly  on  a  mattress 
on  the  floor  of  his  tent,  when  he  was  awak- 
ened by  a  very  uncomfortable  feeling  of 
numerous  things  crawling  over  him.  To 
his  surprise  he  found  a  colony  of  brown 
ants  in  his  tent.  Unwittingly  he  had 
camped  across  their  line  of  march.  By 
thousands  they  were  crawling  over  him  and 
his  mattress.  He  climbed  on  top  of  a  box, 
while  some  of  his  men  set  fire  to  the  whole 
ground  inside  and  around  his  tent.  After 
an  hour's  struggle,  the  ants  disappeared,  but 
Mr.  Mackay  slept  on  the  top  of  the  box  till 
daybreak. 

At  one  place,  the  party  were  obliged  to 
cross  a  river  very  much  flooded  by  the  re- 
cent rains.  They  could  not  wait  for  the 
water  to  fall,  for  thunder-storms  were  com- 
ing as  frequently  as  ever.  Cross  it  they 
must;  but  how  to  do  it  was  a  most  difficult 
puzzle.  This  is  the  way  Mackay  solved  it. 
One  of  the  carts  was  stripped  of  its  wheels 

64 


^4 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

and  all  other  fittings  so  that  when  all  the 
cracks  were  filled  with  tar,  it  made  a  sort 
of  small  barge.  A  few  excellent  swimmers 
of  the  caravan  carried  a  cord  across  the 
river.  By  means  of  this  cord  a  rope  was 
hauled  across  and  passed  around  a  strong 
X3ost  on  the  opposite  side,  and  then  brought 
back  to  the  side  on  which  the  caravan  was 
stationed.  To  this  pulley  the  cart-barge 
was  attached.  By  pulling  the  rope  from 
one  or  the  other  bank,  the  men  carried  the 
barge  with  its  cargo  of  freight  across  the 
river,  or  brought  it  back  empty  to  be  re- 
loaded. Other  swollen  rivers  and  smaller 
streams  had  to  be  crossed  from  time  to  time. 
It  was  no  mere  play  to  cross  any  one  of  them 
with  oxen  and  carts  and  baggage  which 
needed  to  be  kept  dry. 

One  day,  the  accidents  were  not  confined 
to  the  carts  or  baggage,  but  Mr.  Mackay 
himself  was  temporarily  crippled.  He  had 
just  succeeded  in  getting  one  of  the  carts 
over  a  stream,  when  he  became  entangled  in 
a  bush  and  one  of  the  wheels  caught  his  right 

65 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


foot.  He  fell,  and  the  wheel  ran  over  both 
his  legs.  He  nearly  fainted  from  the  shock ; 
yet  a  little  crude  doctoring  revived  him  con- 
siderably. Two  of  his  men,  putting  their 
loads  into  the  carts,  carried  him  along  in  a 
hammock.  However,  it  continued  to  be  a 
day  of  troubles;  for  cart  after  cart  upset, 
Then  too,  sick  as  he  was,  Mr.  Mackay  was 
obliged  to  turn  from  patient  to  doctor;  for 
the  chief  of  a  village  near  by,  hearing  of  his 
arrival,  sent  to  him  seven  of  his  subjects 
to  be  vaccinated  and  one  little  boy  to  be 
cured  of  spinal  disease! 

,  One  morning  the  natives  gave  Mr.  Mack- 
ay  a  unique  surprise.  Lo,  his  road  had 
been  changed  into  a  field  of  growing  corn. 
"We  thought  you  white  men  had  cleared 
this  space  for  us  that  we  might  plant  gar- 
dens," the  natives  explained. 

In  reality,  they  were  afraid  that  the  great 
teams  of  oxen  coming  along  the  white 
man's  road  would  soon  be  followed  by  vast 
European  armies.  The  farther  inland  the 
caravan  traveled,  the  more  the  natives  tried 

66 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

to  harass  them.  In  many  places,  they 
blocked  the  road  with  bushes  and  trunks  of 
trees;  as  soon  as  the  cattle  were  safely 
across  a  river,  they  drove  them  back  to  the 
other  side;  and  became  very  angry  when 
they  saw  the  oxen  tread  down  the  corn 
planted  on  the  track.  Indeed,  one  chief 
sent  word  to  Mr.  Mackay  that  if  he  took  his 
teams  past  the  chief's  village  he  would  be 
shot.  Only  by  patience  and  skill  could  head- 
way be  made. 

Still  one  more  misfortune  came  upon 
them,  greater  than  all  that  have  been  men- 
tioned. In  many  parts  of  the  road,  the 
caravan  was  pestered  by  the  tsetse  flies. 
These  were  large  brownish-yellow  insects 
which,  by  thousands,  stung  both  the  men 
and  the  oxen.  Although  they  seemed  to 
bring  little  more  than  discomfort  to  the  men 
their  sting  was  almost  invariably  fatal  to 
the  animals.  When  still  some  distance 
from  Mpwapwa,  half  of  the  eighty  oxen  with 
which  they  started  were  dead,  and  many 
more  were  sick,  and  it  was  not  many  weeks 

67 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


before  the  surviving  oxen  became  so  few 
that  the  carts  were  abandoned  entirely. 

Thus  the  road  had  been  built  at  the  cost 
of  nearly  one-third  of  a  year's  time.  With 
much  difficulty  oxen  had  been  trained  and 
men  taught  to  drive  them.  Carts  had  been 
brought  all  the  way  from  India,  and  much 
money  had  been  spent,  and  months  of  hard 
rough  labor  had  been  given  to  make  travel 
by  carts  a  success ;  but  the  little  brown  flies 
with  their  poisonous  stings  spoiled  it  all. 
It  was  discouraging  indeed;  but  listen  to 
the  missionary,  who  had  done  the  hardest 
work  of  all. 

"Small  beginnings  may  lead  to  some- 
thing higher  and  better  in  the  future,  but 
the  first  steps  cannot  be  anything  but  tedi- 
ous. The  longest  night  has  always  had  a 
dawn  when  done,  and  here  I  do  believe  no 
far  distant  time  will  see  a  very  different 
order  of  things  from  what  has  been  always 
in  the  past.  We  are  indeed  groping  in  the 
dark  as  to  how  or  what  we  ought  to  do  first, 
but  great  bodies  grow  slowly,  and  the  gar- 

68 


JUNGLE  ROADS  AND  OX-CARTS 

den  of  the  devil  cannot  be  reclaimed  for 
God  all  in  a  year.  This  will  certainly  be 
yet  a  highway  for  the  King  Himself,  and 
all  that  pass  this  way  will  come  to  know  his 
name. ' ' 

Why  should  this  one  white  man  be  so 
hopeful?  When  traveling  on  foot,  he  had 
barely  escaped  death  from  fever.  He  had 
failed  in  building  a  road.  What  would  he 
attempt  next  ?  Indeed,  what  was  there  left 
for  him  to  try  °l 


159 


CHAPTER  IV 

TWO   RECEPTIONS  AT  THE  ROYAL   PALACE 

WHAT  of  the  rest  of  the  brave  band 
who  started  together  from  England? 
A  grave  to  be  fonnd  on  a  small  island  off 
the  coast  near  Zanzibar  told  the  story  of 
one ;  and  by  the  shores  of  Victoria  Lake  on 
a  wooden  slab  above  a  mound  of  earth  could 
have  been  read  the  name,  "Dr.  John 
Smith."  Two  more  of  the  party  had  re- 
turned to  their  English  homes  as  invalids. 
While  Mr.  Maekay  was  still  cutting,  digging, 
and  leveling  for  the  road  to  Mpwapwa,  the 
other  three  members  of  the  party  that  re- 
mained were  camping  beside  the  far-reach- 
ing waters  of  Victoria  Lake.  They  were 
Lieutenant  Smith,  Mr.  O'Neill. and  Mr.  Wil- 
son. 

To  these  men  tenting  on  the  lake  shore 
70 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

came  two  most  cordial  letters  from  the  king 
they  were  so  eager  to  see.  Twice  canoes 
appeared  before  their  camps  and  guides 
came  from  Mutesa  to  escort  them  to  his 
kingdom.  These  letters  had  been  written 
in  English  by  a  black  boy  named  Mufta,  who 
had  been  educated  in  a  Christian  school  on 
the  coast  and  had  been  left  by  Mr.  Stanley 
with  Mutesa  to  read  the  Bible  to  him.  This 
is  a  copy  of  the  second  royal  letter: 

71 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


With  so  urgent  an  appeal  from  the  king 
himself,  little  wonder  is  it  that  two  of  the 
white  men,  leaving  Mr.  O'Neill  to  guard 
their  supplies  and  to  repair  the  steam 
launch,  hastened  alone  to  the  northern  shore 
of  the  lake. 

It  was  about  an  hour  after  sunset  on  a 
June  day  in  1877,  when  their  boats  were 
anchored  off  a  little  Uganda  village  at  the 
head  of  a  beautiful  bay.  Here  they  were 
left  by  their  guides  who  went  to  the  king  to 
announce  the  coming  of  the  white  men. 
Soon  some  of  Mutesa  's  chief  men  arrived  to 

72 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

say  that  they  must  come  to  his  palace  with 
the  escort  the  king  had  sent. 

A  most  interesting  walk  it  was  to  the 
capital  city,  taking  all  of  two  days.  Plan- 
tain groves  covered  thousands  of  acres  of 
hillsides.  Here  the  missionaries  found 
themselves  in  a  great  tropical  park,  where, 
through  the  branches  of  the  trees,  glimpses 
of  the  beautiful  lake  could  be  had.  There 
they  wound  their  way  through  the  thick  for- 
est, where  the  tall  trees  were  heavily  fes- 
tooned with  tropical  vines  of  rare  beauty. 
Again,  they  stopped  to  rest  by  a  cool,  clear 
stream  in  the  midst  of  a  valley  abounding 
in  ferns  and  palms.  On  the  march  once 
more,  they  crossed  a  broad  swamp  by  way 
of  a  log  road.  At  last  Rubaga,  the  capital 
city,  was  reached,  where  they  were  shown  to 
the  huts  made  ready  for  them  by  the  king's 
order. 

The  first  day  the  king  paid  his  respects  by 
sending  a  rich  present  of  cooking  utensils, 
plantains,  potatoes,  sugar-cane,  milk, 
pombe,  venison,   and  firewood.     Promptly 

73 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


at  eight  o'clock  the  following  morning,  two 
of  the  chief  officers  of  the  king  came  to  es- 
cort them  to  the  palace.  These  officers  were 
superbly  costumed  in  garbs  modeled  after 
the  Arab  style.  Their  white  trousers,  tunics, 
and  stockings,  were  beautifully  set  off  by 
red  shoes  and  caps.  As  the  missionaries 
climbed  the  hill  leading  to  the  palace,  they 
were  escorted  by  several  soldiers  dressed 
in  white,  each  carrying  a  flint-lock  musket. 
Behind  them  paraded  a  crowd  of  Waganda 
dressed  for  the  most  part  in  long,  loose 
brown  gowns  made  from  fig-tree  bark.  Al- 
together, the  officers,  the  soldiers,  the  white 
men,  and  the  crowd  in  long  procession  made 
a  sight  that  was  picturesque  indeed. 

The  broad,  straight  road  which  led  up  to 
the  royal  hill,  superb  in  itself,  was  made  es- 
pecially imposing  by  the  tall  fence  of  tiger 
grass  enclosing  it  on  either  side.  To  build 
these  fences  posts  ten  or  twelve  feet  in 
height  were  driven  into  the  ground  at  in- 
tervals of  a  few  yards.  In  and  out  were 
then  woven  long,  thick,  horizontal  ropes  of 

74 


"  Officers   of   the   King    Came   to   Escort    Them    to   the 
Palace  " 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

reed-like  grass  stalks.  Finally  to  make  the 
meshes  closer,  there  were  tied  to  the  fence 
many  vertical  stalks  of  the  same  kind  of 
grass.  Fences  such  as  this  lined  all  the  im- 
portant roads  in  Uganda  and  were  used  also 
to  enclose  the  private  yards  about  the  huts. 

At  the  top  of  the  hill  stood  Mutesa's  pal- 
ace— a  building  forty  feet  in  height  and  sup- 
ported on  each  side  by  straight  wooden  pil- 
lars. The  graceful  yellow  stems  of  tiger 
grass  formed  its  walls,  and  its  roof,  too,  was 
thatched  with  grass.  With  its  seventy  feet 
of  length,  the  structure  was  easily  the  larg- 
est in  the  realm.  To  the  front  of  the  palace 
were  a  number  of  courts  separated  from  one 
another  by  high  grass  fences,  with  sliding 
doors  of  grass  connecting  them. 

As  the  white  men  neared  the  royal  en- 
closure, a  bugle  announced  their  coming, 
the  gates  of  the  courts  were  opened  one  by 
one  as  the  party  approached,  and  quickly 
closed  behind  them  as  they  passed.  Two 
lines  of  white-robed  soldiers  made  a  lane 
through  each  court,  each  soldier  carrying  a 

75 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


gun.  As  the  last  gate  opened  and  closed, 
Lieutenant  Smith  and  Mr.  Wilson  found 
themselves  before  the  open  door  of  the  pal- 
ace itself. 

In  the  central  hall,  on  stools  ranged  in  two 
rows  on  either  side  of  the  entrance,  sat  all 
the  chiefs  of  the  country.  Some  were 
dressed  in  black,  some  were  in  white,  and 
some  in  red;  but  all  the  costumes  were  of 
Arabian  pattern.  All  the  chiefs  arose  as  the 
white  men  entered.  The  guests  were  con- 
ducted to  the  upper  end  of  the  hall  where  on 
a  chair  of  white  wood  sat  his  majesty,  King 
Mutesa.  The  king  was  wearing  a  black  Arab 
tunic  trimmed  with  gold  braid.  His  trous- 
ers and  stockings  were  white,  and  his;  cap 
and  shoes  were  red.  In  his  belt,  he  carried 
a  richly  mounted  sword.  At  his  feet  lay  a 
small  rug,  while  the  rest  of  the  hall  was  car- 
peted with  grass. 

As  the  Englishmen  approached,  Mutesa 
arose  from  his  throne,  shook  hands  with 
them,  and  then  by  a  wave  of  the  hand  di- 
rected them  to  two  stools  near  him  which 

76 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

had  been  reserved  for  them.  Forthwith 
there  was  much  beating  of  drums.  Five 
minutes  of  noise  gave  an  opportunity  for  all 
in  the  room  to  feast  their  eyes  on  the  cen- 
tral figures  of  this  reception  at  court. 
When  the  drums  had  finished  their  din,  the 
king,  called  one  of  the  messengers  whom  he 
had  sent  to  bring  the  white  men  to  Uganda. 
He  bade  him  tell  the  story  of  their  adven- 
tures. 

Letters  were  then  read  from  the  Sultan 
of  Zanzibar  and  from  the  Church  Mission- 
ary Society  in  London.  The  English  of  the 
letter  from  England  was  translated  for  the 
king  by  Mufta.     This  was  the  way  it  read: 

"To  His  Majesty  King  Mutesa,  Ruler  of 
Uganda. 

"Sire: — We  have  heard  with  pleasure, 
through  our  friend  Mr.  Stanley,  of  your 
earnest  invitation  to  English  teachers  to 
come  and  settle  in  your  kingdom,  promising 
them  your  favor  and  protection. 

"The  greatness  of  England,  of  which  you 
have  heard,  is  due  to  the  Word  of  God 

77 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


which  we  possess;  her  laws  are  framed  in 
accordance  with  it;  her  people  are  made 
happy  by  it.  Our  desire  is  that  your  throne 
should  be  made  secure ,  your  country  be 
made  great,  and  your  people  made  happy  by 
the  same  means. 

"We  have  resolved,  therefore,  by  the  help 
of  God,  to  send  to  you  two  or  three  of  our 
friends,  who  will  be  prepared  to  settle 
among  your  people,  and  to  teach  them  the 
Word  of  God,  and  other  knowledge  which 
will  be  useful.  .  .  .  From  what  Mr. 
Stanley  has  told  us,  we  are  sure  you  will 
give  them  a  warm  welcome  when  they  ar- 
rive, and  treat  them  kindly,  and  take  care 
that  they  want  nothing. 

' '  Commending  you  to  the  grace  and  bless- 
ing of  the  Most  High  God,  who  is  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  and  whose  servants 
we  are, 

We  desire  to  subscribe  ourselves, 
Your  Majesty's  friends  and  well-wishers. ' ' 

In  the  midst  of  the  reading  of  the  letter, 
the  king  ordered  the  firing  of  a  salute,  and 

78 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

a  general  rejoicing  to  be  made,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  reading,  the  expressions  of  glad- 
ness seemed  to  have  no  bounds.  The  king, 
half  rising  from  his  chair,  called  his  chief 
musician  and  ordered  a  more  vigorous  re- 
joicing. Drums  were  beaten,  horns  were 
blown,  and  all  the  assembly  of  chiefs  were 
bowing  their  heads  and  clapping  their 
hands,  and  saying  again  and  again,  "Nyan- 
zig,"  "Nyanzig,"  "We  thank  you,"  "We 
thank  you."  The  king  asked  his  interpre- 
ter to  tell  the  white  men  that  what  they  saw 
and  heard  was  all  for  the  name  of  Jesus. 

After  some  conversation,  the  white  men 
presented  their  gifts  to  the  king.  These  in- 
cluded a  Turkish  rug,  a  map  of  Africa, 
photographs,  and  other  articles.  Lieuten- 
ant Smith  apologized  for  the  small  number 
of  things  they  had  to  give,  saying  that  some 
had  been  stolen  from  them  on  the  way. 

To  this  the  king  graciously  replied: 
"Great  rivers  swallow  up  small  ones.  Now 
I  have  seen  your  faces,  I  do  not  look  on  the 
presents." 

79 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


The  next  morning  the  missionaries  had  a 
second  conversation  with  the  king  in  the 
presence  of  all  his  chiefs  and  courtiers. 
For  some  reason,  Mutesa  seemed  suspicious 
of  them  and  began  to  inquire  about  General 
Gordon  of  the  English  army  in  Egypt.  He 
wanted  the  white  men  to  make  guns  and 
gunpowder,  at  the  same  time  confessing 
"My  heart  is  not  good."  The  missionaries 
told  him  that  they  had  to  do  as  the  letter 
said  and  not  to  make  guns;  and  that  if  he 
did  not  wish  them  to  stay,  they  would  leave 
Uganda.  For  some  time  he  was  silent,  then 
asked:  "What  have  you  come  for — to 
teach  my  people  to  read  and  write  ?" 

"Yes,"  they  replied,  "and  whatever  use- 
ful arts  we  and  those  coming  may  know." 

Then  calling  his  interpreter,  the  king 
said:  "Tell  them  now  my  heart  is  good; 
England  is  my  friend.  I  have  one  hand  in 
Uganda,  and  the  other  in  England. ' ' 

When  the  missionaries  reached  their  huts 
after  the  morning  baraza  [court]  was  over, 
there  came  to  them  a  messenger  from  Mu- 

80 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

tesa  saying  that  there  was  one  more  word 
which  he  wanted  to  say  to  them,  but  he  had 
been  afraid  to  say  it  before  all  the  people. 
Eager  to  know  what  this  further  message 
was,  Lieutenant  Smith  and  Mr.  Wilson  in 
the  afternoon  went  a  third  time  to  the  king's 
palace.  They  found  him  seated  in  a  side 
room  with  only  a  few  chiefs  and  one  wife 
present. 

He  said:  " There  is  one  word  I  want  to 
say  to  you.  I  was  afraid  to  speak  it  this 
morning  because  the  Arabs  were  present. 
This  is  it, — Did  you  bring  'The  Book'? 
That  is  all  I  want." 

They  told  him  they  had  it  in  English  and 
Arabic,  and  part  of  it  in  the  language 
spoken  at  the  coast  which  Mutesa  knew 
slightly,  and  they  hoped  soon  to  give  it  to 
him  in  Luganda  [the  language  of  Uganda]. 

Then  Mutesa 's  heart  was  very  good.  He 
took  the  white  men  out  into  his  palace 
grounds  and  showed  them  the  beautiful 
views  which  could  be  had  from  various  po- 
sitions.  He  also  pointed  out  two  sites  which 

81 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


he  said  he  would  give  them,  one  for  a  mis- 
sion house,  the  other  for  a  school. 

"When  will  they  be  built?"  they  asked. 

"  To-morrow  my  people  shall  go  and  bring 
wood,"  and  the  king  was  as  good  as  his 
word ;  for  the  next  day  the  work  began. 

Such  a  welcome  was  most  encouraging. 
After  a  month 's  stay  in  the  hut  Mutesa  had 
built  for  them,  Lieutenant  Smith  said 
good-by  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  started  for  the( 
southern  end  of  the  lake  to  tell  Mr.  O'Neill 
how  royally  Mutesa  had  received  them.  He 
expected  to  help  Mr.  O  'Neill  launch  the  mis- 
sionary boat  and  pack  supplies.  Then  to- 
gether they  would  return  to  Uganda.  But 
their  hopes  were  never  realized.  While  on 
one  of  the  islands  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  lake,  both  Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  O'Neill 
were  heartlessly  murdered  by  the  natives. 

The  terrible  news  was  reported  to  Mr. 
Mackay  before  his  oxen  and  carts  had 
reached  Mpwapwa.  His  cattle  had  been  dy- 
ing three  and  four  a  day.  The  dusky  na- 
tives were  daily  jeering  at  the  white  man's 

82 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

failure.  He  himself  had  just  recovered 
from  another  attack  of  fever.  Just  at  that 
moment,  he  heard  that  two  more  of  their 
band  had  been  taken  from  them. 

Broken-hearted,  yet  believing  in  his  God, 
he  wrote  to  a  friend  at  home :  ' '  Our  good 
doctor,  my  own  dear  friend  of  many  years, 
went  to  his  rest  nine  months  ago,  and 
now  these  brave  brothers,  Smith  and  O  'Neill, 
have  fallen.  There  were  eight  of  us  sent 
out — two  invalided  and  four  gone  home! 
Only  two  remaining.  Poor  Africa !  When 
will  it  become  a  Christian  country  at  this 
rate  ?  But  God  has  other  hands  hi  reserve, 
whom  he  will  bring  to  the  front,  fast  and 
unexpectedly,  and  the  work  will  go  on 
whether  we  break  down  or  not." 

Since  a  wealthy  Arab  merchant  had  been 
murdered  along  with  the  missionaries,  Mr. 
Mackay  was  afraid  that  the  Arabs  would 
take  revenge  on  the  king  who  had  murdered 
them.  Eager  to  prevent  further  bloodshed, 
he  decided  to  hurry  to  the  lake  as  fast  as 
possible. 

83 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Bundles  and  bags  were  safely  stored,  and 
Mr.  Tytherleigh  was  left  to  see  that  the  best 
two  of  the  carts,  emptied  of  all  freight,  were 
dragged  to  Mpwapwa.  Mackay  himself 
sped  forward  as  fast  as  possible.  Five  days 
of  quick  marching,  wading  and  swimming 
through  jungles,  swamps,  and  rivers, 
brought  him  to  Mpwapwa.  A  brief  rest,  and 
he  was  again  on  a  forced  march,  with  only 
six  men  to  carry  outfit,  food,  and  medicine. 

Although  hurrying  as  fast  as  he  was  able, 
he  saw  three  months  go  by  before  he  reached 
Kagei,  a  little  town  on  the  southern  shore  of 
.Victoria  Lake.  The  body  of  his  only  white 
companion,  Mr.  Tytherleigh,  was  laid  in  a 
grave  by  the  way.  Mr.  Mackay  tramped 
through  jungles,  plodded  along  sandy  des- 
erts, and  picked  his  way  over  stony  stretches 
till  his  feet  were  blistered  and  bleeding. 
Every  step  was  painful.  Repeated  attacks 
of  fever  reduced  him  almost  to  a  skeleton. 
But  on  the  evening  of  the  thirteenth  of  June, 
forgetting  his  weakness  and  pain,  with  in- 
tense joy  he  stood  on  the  shore  of  Victoria 

84 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

Lake.  At  last  his  miserable  marching  was 
over,  and  he  too  could  hope  soon  to  present 
himself  at  the  court  of  King  Mutesa. 

June  passed,  and  July,  and  August.  In- 
deed it  was  not  till  November  (1878),  that 
Mr.  Mackay  entered  the  capital  of  Uganda. 
Two  years  and  a  half  had  passed  since  he 
had  said  good-by  to  his  friends  in  the  home- 
land. Two  years  and  a  half  spent  merely  in 
traveling!  And  he  had  not  yet  even  seen 
the  king  who  had  asked  Stanley  to  send  him 
missionaries. 

But  Mutesa  had  not  forgotten  his  request. 
For  over  a  year  Mr.  Wilson  had  lived  near 
his  palace,  and  the  black  king  had  learned 
to  like  him.  Mr.  Wilson  had  told  his  Maj- 
esty of  the  other  white  man  who  was  on  his 
way,  and  Mutesa  grew  very  eager  to  receive 
Mr.  Mackay.  But  the  day  he  arrived  the 
king  was  ill.  He  merely  sent  his  salaams 
and  two  fat  goats.  Two  days  later,  however, 
word  came  that  the  king  was  holding  baraza, 
and  wished  to  see  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr. 
Mackay  at  once.     Carrying  their  presents 

85 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


with  them  they  started  off  for  the  palace. 
Mr.  Mackay  will  tell  his  own  story  of  their 
reception. 

"Messenger  after  messenger  came  run- 
ning like  madmen  to  hurry  us  on,  but  I  was 
determined  not  to  give  way  to  the  frantic 
behavior  of  these  excited  couriers,  and  kept 
a  steady  step.  At  length  we  entered  on  the 
grand  esplanade,  running  east  and  west 
along  the  top  of  the  hill  and  ending  in  the 
palace  at  the  west  end.  The  gates  were 
opened,  the  grand  guard  presented  arms, 
and  we  passed  along  through  the  double  row 
of  guards,  into  a  large  hall,  densely  lined 
with  courtiers.  At  the  far  end  was  a  door, 
through  which  we  were  ushered  into  the 
presence  of  the  king.  Here  he  was,  seated 
on  a  mat,  dressed  in  a  long  white  robe  and 
long  black  coat  richly  embroidered  with  gold 
braid.  He  bowed  politely,  and  stools  were 
brought  for  us  to  sit  on,  while  some  Turkish- 
dressed  attendants  squatted  on  the  ground. 
An  old  woman  sat  behind  the  king,  a  little 
wTay  off,   and  watched  intently.     For  ten 

86 


RECEPTION  AT  THE  ROYAL  PALACE 

minutes  we  eyed  each  other  in  dead  silence. 
Then  a  little  talk  began.  Our  gifts  were 
presented,  and  the  music-box  struck  up  the 
fine  air,  'The  heavens  are  telling,'  from 
Haydn's  oratorio  called  'Creation.' 

"We  talked  with  him  on  many  subjects 
for  an  hour.  The  king  told  us  he  had  been 
led  to  suspect  the  coming  of  Englishmen  to 
his  country  as  a  danger  to  his  throne,  but 
now  a  year  had  passed  since  Lieutenant 
Smith  and  Mr.  Wilson  first  arrived,  and  all 
his  intercourse  with  our  party  had  only 
tended  to  raise  us  in  his  favor. 

"After  some  time  the  king  intimated  that 
he  was  too  ill  to  sit  long,  and  gave  us  per- 
mission to  go.  We  left,  the  whole  court  ris- 
ing and  following  us  down  the  hill — small 
boys,  as  usual,  forming  a  majority  of  the 
spectators  and  followers.  In  the  evening 
the  king  sent  us  no  less  than  ten  fat  cattle  as 
a  present,  and  a  man's  load  of  tobacco  with 
a  like  quantity  of  both  coffee  and  honey. ' ' 

This  then  was  the  sort  of  reception  given 
by  King  Mutesa  to  the  first  English  mission- 

87 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 

aries  of  Uganda.  He  showed  every  sign  of 
being  glad  to  have  them  in  his  country.  He 
supplied  them  generously  with  food.  He 
gave  them  huts  to  live  in.  He  built  them  a 
mission  house  and  school  building.  At  court 
he  listened  attentively  to  their  messages. 
He  observed  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and 
welcomed  Christian  services  at  his  court. 
Every  prospect  was  encouraging,  and  with 
gratitude  the  missionaries  carried  on  their 
work. 


88 


CHAPTER  V 

WHITE  MEN"  AND  BLACK  MEN  BECOME 
ACQUAINTED 

A  MILE  and  a  half  down  the  hill  from 
Mutesa's  palace  was  the  grass  hut 
where  lived  the  two  white  men.  During  the 
first  few  weeks  after  their  arrival,  they  had 
lived  nearer  the  royal  hill;  but,  because  of 
the  jealousy  of  the  chiefs,  the  king  was 
obliged  to  have  their  quarters  moved  farther 
away,  for  according  to  custom  the  greatest 
chief  should  live  nearest  the  palace.  The 
Arabs,  too,  were  jealous  and  had  told  the 
king  that  if  he  allowed  the  white  men  to 
build  their  own  home,  it  would  be  a  fortress 
of  brick,  and  they  would  soon  take  his  king- 
dom away  from  him. 

So  the  white  men's  African  home  was 
nothing  but  a  rectangular  hut  with  open 

89 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


spaces  left  in  the  tiger-grass  walls  for  win- 
dows. The  thatched  roof  was  shaped  some- 
thing like  a  cocked  hat ;  and  in  front,  it  ex- 
tended a  few  feet  beyond  the  walls,  making 
a  sort  of  veranda.  The  rooms  within, 
formed  by  tiger-grass  partitions,  were 
broken  up  by  numerous  poles  which  served 
as  roof-supports,  and  in  the  dark  as  obsta- 
cles to  bump  against. 

Mutesa  had  given  the  white  men  almost 
two  acres  of  land,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
a  number  of  houses  were  built  upon  it. 
Within  four  months  after  Mr.  Mackay  's  ar- 
rival, five  missionary  recruits  from  England 
reached  the  capital,  making  in  all  a  party  of 
seven  missionaries.  As  homes  for  these 
several  other  huts  were  built.  One  man  be- 
ing a  doctor,  built  a  dispensary  where  he 
might  receive  his  patients.  Mr.  Mackay  put 
up  two  workshops  where  he  might  have  a 
school  of  mechanics.  A  schoolhouse  was 
king  Mutesa 's  gift.  An  extensive  garden 
was  planted  with  vegetable  seeds  brought 
from  England.    Five  hundred  banana  plants 

90 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

were  set  out,  and  the  entire  plot  of  land  en- 
closed by  a  tall  tiger-grass  fence.  Before 
long,  the  missionary  headquarters  began  to 
be  very  attractive. 

It  is  true  that  in  such  primitive  dwellings 
not  a  few  discomforts  had  to  be  undergone. 
Had  the  missionaries  enjoyed  anything  bet- 
ter than  a  mud  floor  or  indulged  in  more 
than  a  few  pieces  of  plain  furniture,  the  na- 
tives would  have  become  suspicious.  Yet 
the  white  men  were  ambitious  to  show  them- 
selves true  friends  of  the  black  men,  and 
so  every  day  it  was  their  custom  to  eat 
some  plain  native  foods.  Frequently  they 
would  sit  down  in  the  home  of  a  friendly 
native  of  Uganda  to  a  meal  of  meat  and 
bananas.  But,  try  as  hard  as  they  might  to 
live  plainly  among  the  natives,  there  were 
many  things  about  them  and  their  actions 
which  seemed  strange  to  the  black  men. 

The  large  oval  table  was  a  most  wonderful 
piece  of  furniture  to  the  Waganda.  To  us 
it  would  have  seemed  a  very  crude  affair, 
for  Mr.  Mackay  had  made  it  by  screwing  to- 

91 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


gether  two  big  half-oval  parts  of  the  steam 
launch,  and  mounting  them  on  six  poles 
which  were  stuck  in  the  mud  floor.  Then 
too  the  black  men  were  bewildered  by  the 
strange  fire  [the  lamp]  which  the  white  men 
kept  burning  on  the  table  from  which  they 
ate.  The  knives  and  forks  also  perplexed 
the  natives,  who  were  accustomed  to  use 
only  their  fingers  for  handling  food.  "Per- 
haps," they  thought,  "  these  long,  stiff 
things  the  white  men  eat  with  are  a  part  of 
their  hands."  They  looked  with  curious 
eyes  on  the  white  men's  clothes;  their 
shoes,  especially,  were  beyond  comprehen- 
sion. "Why  is  it,"  they  asked  themselves, 
"that  the  Englishmen  have  white  faces  and 
hands  and  black  feet  with  toes  all  joined 
into  one?" 

All  these  and  other  odd  customs  made  the 
Waganda  flock  in  crowds  to  stare  at  the 
strangers  and  to  watch  the  things  they  did. 
But  after  a  few  months  had  passed,  the 
novelty  began  to  wear  off,  and  the  mission- 
aries were  no  longer  feared.     The  chiefs  be- 

92 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

came  their  friends,  and  every  day  one  or 
more  of  them  called. 

The  white  men  continued  to  do  many 
things  which  seemed  most  wonderful  to  the 
ignorant  people  of  Uganda.  From  the  first, 
Mackay  became  a  special  favorite  of  the 
king  and  chiefs  because  of  the  marvelous 
things  he  could  make.  Often  Mr.  Mackay 's 
workshop  was  filled  with  chiefs  and  slaves 
together,  who  stood  and  gazed  with  curi- 
osity as  he  toiled  away  with  his  tools.  His 
blacksmith's  forge  and  bellows  and  his  turn- 
ing-lathe were  marvels  unseen  before  in 
Uganda;  and,  as  they  saw  him  sharpen  a 
knife  on  the  revolving  grindstone,  they 
were  greatly  puzzled  to  know  what  made  the 
wheels  go  round. 

In  the  evenings  Mr.  Mackay  often  de- 
lighted a  company  of  natives  with  the  mar- 
vels of  the  magic  lantern.  What  mattered  it 
to  them  that  the  chimney  had  been  built  of 
two  biscuit  cans,  one  placed  on  top  of  the 
other  and  tacked  into  a  wooden  box  %  Their 
wonder  centered  in  the  pictures. 

93 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


When  Mr.  Mackay 's  skill  became  widely 
known,  miscellaneous  articles  for  him  to  re- 
pair were  heaped  upon  the  bench  in  his 
workshop.  Native-made  steel  hoes  and 
hatchets  were  given  him  to  temper.  They 
said  it  was  by  means  of  witchcraft  that  he 
was  able  to  put  hardness  into  steel  and  then 
take  it  out  again.  No  kind  of  wheel  had 
ever  before  been  seen  in  Uganda,  and  any 
sort  of  rotary  motion  seemed  marvelous  to 
the  natives.  Even  when  one  day  he  rolled 
several  logs  up  a  hill,  great  crowds  followed 
him,  crying,  "Mahay  lubare!  Makay  lubare 
dala!"  ["Mackay  is  the  great  spirit; 
Mackay  is  truly  the  great  spirit."] 

On  one  occasion,  Mutesa  asked  to  see  a 
steam-engine.  Mr.  Mackay  tells  the  story: 
"I  went  up  wTith  one  from  the  steam  launch 
we  brought  last  trip — the  first  article  of  the 
kind  ever  in  this  part  of  the  world.  The 
king  asked  many  intelligent  questions  about 
it.  I  took  a  screw-key  with  me  to  show  how 
the  parts  can  be  taken  asunder,  when  the 
king  came  out  with  one  of  his  'pretty  say- 

94 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

ings.'  He  said,  'White  men's  wisdom  comes 
from  God.  They  see  the  human  body  is  all 
in  pieces — joints  and  limbs — and  that  is  why 
they  make  such  things  in  pieces  too!'  " 

"After  much  talk,  he  asked  how  white 
men  came  to  know  so  much — did  they  al- 
ways know  these  things  ?  I  replied  that  once 
Englishmen  were  savages  and  knew  nothing 
at  all,  but  from  the  day  we  became  Chris- 
tians our  knowledge  grew  more  and  more, 
and  every  year  we  were  wiser  than  we  were 
before." 

"I  guess  God  will  not  prosper  any  man," 
the  king  said,  "that  does  not  please  him." 

"God  is  kind  to  all,"  Mackay  answered, 
"but  especially  to  these  who  love  and  fear 
him. ' ' 

"Eh,  Eh"  ["Yes,  Yes"]  answered  Mu- 
tesa. 

So,  because  of  his  mechanical  skill,  Mr. 
Mackay  had  an  opportunity  to  teach  Mu- 
tesa  and  his  court  who  the  people  are  who 
really  prosper  and  become  wise. 

However,  it  did  not  satisfy  Mr.  Mackay 
95 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


to  have  the  crowds  look  up  to  him  as  the 
great  man  who  was  able  to  make  anything. 
His  ambition  was  to  gather  pupils  and  to 
teach  them  to  make  useful  things  for  their 
own  people. 

At  first  Mutesa  would  not  allow  any  one 
to  be  taught,  neither  did  the  men  and  boys 
wish  to  learn,  for  in  Uganda  it  was  an  honor 
for  a  man  to  be  idle.  In  that  tropical  cli- 
mate and  rich  country,  little  or  no  work 
needed  to  be  done  to  obtain  abundant  crops 
of  fruits  and  vegetables.  To  support  a 
large  family  with  their  simple  ways  of  liv- 
ing meant  little  labor  for  the  head  of  the 
house.  What  work  was  to  be  done  was 
given  to  the  slaves  and  the  women.  A 
"gentleman"  in  Uganda,  therefore,  had  lit- 
tle to  do  but  to  order  his  slaves  and  wives 
about,  and  to  attend  the  daily  baraza  of  the 
king.  That  Mr.  Mackay  -  was  willing  to 
work  with  his  hands  was  not  the  least  won- 
derful thing  about  him.  It  required  a  long 
time  for  him  to  teach  them  that  a  Christian 
ought  not  to  be  an  idle  man. 

96 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

It  was  not  so  difficult  a  task  to  persuade 
the  natives  to  come  to  the  missionaries' 
house  to  learn  to  read.  At  first  the  king 
forbade  any  going  to  the  white  men  even  for 
this  purpose,  probably  because  he  was 
afraid  they  would  soon  be  able  to  outstrip 
him  in  their  ability  to  read. 

It  was  little  more  than  a  month,  however, 
after  Mackay's  arrival  when  the  edict  was 
withdrawn,  and  Mr.  Mackay  wrote:  "I 
have  a  whole  lot  of  pupils,  old  and  young. 
Some  have  made  wonderful  progress  al- 
ready, for  Waganda  are  most  apt,  as  a  rule. 
I  find  the  slaves,  however,  usually  twice  as 
quick  as  their  masters." 

It  was  the  English  alphabet  which  he 
taught  them,  but  Luganda  words  which  they 
learned  to  spell.  On  large  sheets  of  paper 
the  missionaries  copied  big,  clear  letters, 
making  easy  syllables  or  words  and  sen- 
tences. The  number  of  pupils  steadily  in- 
creased, so  that  it  was  difficult  for  the  mis- 
sionaries to  make  reading  sheets  fast 
enough. 

97 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


The  coming  of  these  pupils,  eager  to  learn 
to  read,  was  most  encouraging ;  yet  the  mis- 
sionaries '  opportunities  for  being  helpful  to 
the  Waganda  were  not  confined  to  their 
homes  and  the  schoolhouse.  King  Mutesa 
was  urgent  in  his  frequent  invitations  to 
them  to  attend  the  morning  baraza  at  the 
palace,  and  to  tell  him  and  his  chiefs  of  the 
ways  of  white  men  and  their  religion. 
Every  Sabbath  morning  it  was  his  custom  to 
hold  a  religious  service  in  the  palace.  At 
these  times,  week  days  and  Sundays,  the 
missionaries  talked  on  many  subjects  to  the 
king  and  his  chiefs.  Sometimes  it  was 
about  the  two  countries,  England  and 
Uganda. 

' '  You  would  sometimes  be  amused  to  hear 
the  high  idea  entertained  by  the  king  and 
people  about  their  own  country,"  Mr. 
Mackay  wrote,  "It  is  only  natural,  however. 
Not  long  ago  Mutesa  said  to  me:  'Mackay, 
when  I  become  friends  with  England,  God 
in  heaven  will  be  witness  that  England  will 
not   come   to  make   war   on  Uganda,   nor 

98 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

Uganda  go  to  make  war  on  England !  And 
when  I  go  to  England, '  lie  continued, '  I  shall 
take  greatness  and  glory  with  me,  and  shall 
bring  greatness  and  glory  back  again. 
Every  one  will  say,  'Oh,  Mutesa  is  coming!' 
when  I  reach  England;  and  when  I  return, 
'Oh,  Mutesa  is  coming  back  again!'  " 

"Of  course,  at  such  statements  I  only  look 
very  grave,  and  say,  'Just  so,  exactly.'  At 
present,  (do  not  laugh)  Mutesa  really  be- 
lieves that  Uganda  is  the  most  powerful 
country  in  the  world.  Though  he  fears 
Egypt,  he  has  often  spoken  of  going  to  fight 
against  Colonel  Gordon.  I  have  had  some 
stiff  arguments  with  him  on  this  point. 
You  will  understand  that  in  such  matters 
I  must  be  very  careful.  A  king  that  is 
used  to  nothing  but  flattery  from  his  court- 
iers, whose  lives  he  can  take  at  any  moment 
if  they  do  anything  other  than  flatter  him, 
is  no  ordinary  individual  to  speak  plainly 
to.  One  needs  a  smooth  tongue  when  speak- 
ing to  him. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I  am  afraid  of 
99 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


him,  but  there  is  no  use  giving  offense. 
And  yet  the  truth  can  be  told,  although  not 
in  just  so  many  words.  In  sacred  matters, 
however,  I  do  very  differently.  In  teaching 
the  relations  between  man  and  God  I  make 
no  mincing  of  matters.  When  I  have  to  say 
what  goes  hard  against  heathen  custom  and 
pride  and  love  of  self,  I  give  my  message, 
saying  it  is  not  mine  but  God's  command." 

King  Mutesa  was  quick  to  understand 
what  was  explained  to  him ;  yet  things  which 
are  very  commonplace  to  civilized  men  he 
had  never  heard  of  before.  When  Mr. 
Mackay  told  him  in  a  simple  way  about  the 
railroads  and  steamships,  and  explained 
what  the  telephone  and  telegraph  could  do, 
the  king  was  greatly  delighted. 

This  is  the  way  Mackay  summed  it  up, 
and  Mutesa  was  deeply  impressed:  "My 
forefathers  made  the  wind  their  slave ;  then 
they  enchained  water;  next  they  enslaved 
steam;  but  now  the  terrible  lightning  is  the 
white  man's  slave,  and  a  capital  one  it  is, 
too!" 

100 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

Their  first  Christmas  in  Uganda  was  duly 
celebrated  at  court.  Mr.  Mackay  having  ex- 
plained the  meaning  of  the  day,  a  great  flag 
was  hoisted  above  the  palace,  as  was  usual 
on  Sundays,  and  all  the  chiefs  appeared  in 
extraordinary  dress.  Mr.  Mackay  read  the 
story  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  as  told  in  St. 
Luke's  Gospel,  and  explained  the  meaning 
of  the  song  of  the  angels.  Being  asked  to 
tell  more,  he  related  the  story  of  Jesus '  boy- 
hood and  young  manhood  at  Nazareth,  and 
tried  to  show  by  Jesus '  example,  that  it  was 
an  honor  to  work  with  one's  hands. 

Some  days  later,  an  Arab  trader  presented 
himself  at  court  with  guns  and  cloth  which 
he  wanted  to  sell  for  slaves.  He  offered  one 
red  cloth  for  one  slave ;  one  musket  for  two 
slaves ;  and  one  hundred  percussion  caps  for 
one  female  slave. 

Since  Mackay  was  present  that  morning, 
he  was  given  an  opportunity  to  speak.  In 
the  presence  of  all  the  chiefs  and  courtiers, 
he  told  the  king  how  cruelly  the  poor  slaves 
were  treated  during  their  journeys  to  the 

101 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


coast.  Mutesa  was  so  much  moved  that  he 
declared  he  would  sell  uo  more  slaves  to  the 
Arabs,  and  the  traders  were  obliged  to  sell 
their  guns  and  cloth  for  ivory  only. 

Some  days  later,  Mr.  Mackay  took  a  book 
on  physiology  to  the  palace.  By  means  of 
pictures,  he  showed  the  king  the  different 
parts  of  the  body,  and  how  the  blood  circu- 
lates through  them  all.  He  explained  many 
things  so  that  Mutesa  might  see  h6w  won- 
derfully perf  ect  the  human  body  is,  and  that 
no  man  or  group  of  men  in  all  the  world 
could  ever  make  one.  "Yet,"  he  said,  "the 
Arabs  wish  to  buy  these  perfect  bodies  with 
immortal  souls  within  them,  each  for  a  rag 
of  cloth  which  one  man  can  make  in  a  day. ' ' 

Mutesa  was  convinced  of  the  wrong,  and 
decreed  that  from  that  time  no  one  in  his 
kingdom  should  sell  a  slave  on  pain  of  death. 

"The  best  decree  you  have  ever  made, 
King  Mutesa,"  said  Mr.  Mackay:  but  alas, 
it  was  one  thing  for  Mutesa  to  make  a  de- 
cree and  another  to  see  that  his  words  were 
faithfully  carried  out. 

102 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

Often  on  Sabbaths  Mr.  Mackay  read  to 
the  king  some  of  the  parables  Jesus  told. 
One  day,  he  read  the  story  of  the  old  gar- 
ment and  the  new  cloth  (Luke  v.  36),  how  it 
was  not  wise  to  tear  a  piece  off  of  a  new 
garment  and  patch  an  old  garment  with  it ; 
for  the  new  garment  would  be  spoiled  and 
the  patch  would  not  look  well  on  the  old 
gown. 

So,  he  told  the  king,  it  was  just  as  fool- 
ish for  him  to  patch  up  his  old  heathen  life 
by  doing  a  few  Christian  things.  It  was 
no  use  for  him  to  try  to  be  a  heathen  and 
a  Christian  at  the  same  time,  to  keep  on 
living  with  his  three  hundred  wives  and  to 
pretend  to  be  a  Christian;  to  buy  and  sell 
God's  children  as  slaves,  and  to  claim  to 
follow  Jesus;  to  treat  his  subjects  cruelly 
and  to  order  them  killed  for  every  little  of- 
fense, and  still  to  pray  at  Christian  service 
on  Sunday. 

Another  morning  at  court,  Mr.  Mackay 
read  the  parable  of  the  sower  and  the  seed, 
and  invited  the  king  and  chiefs  to  talk  freely 

103 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


together  about  it.  Mutesa  was  so  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  explanation  of  the  parable 
that  he  said  to  his  chiefs,  "Isa  [Jesus],  was 
there  ever  any  one  like  him?" 

So  at  the  beginning  of  their  life  in  Ugan- 
da there  was  much  to  encourage  the  mis- 
sionaries. But  King  Mutesa  was  not  always 
the  earnest,  interested  learner  he  seemed  at 
first  to  be.  He  was  a  king  with  two  very 
different  faces,  and  he  showed  whichever  he 
chose  when  the  white  men  were  present. 

Shortly  after  Mr.  Mackay  arrived  in 
Uganda,  the  missionaries  were  surprised  to 
learn  that  a  group  of  French  Catholic 
priests  wTere  on  their  way  to  Mutesa 's  land. 
On  their  arrival,  the  king  received  them 
with  his  accustomed  cordiality  and  pomp. 
But  from  that  time  trouble  began.  Protes- 
tants and  Catholics  both  believe  themselves 
to  be  Christians,  yet  their  beliefs  about 
Christ  and  the  Bible  are  not  alike. 

King  Mutesa  seemed  bewildered.  ' '  Every 
white  man  has  a  different  religion,"  he  said. 
"What  am  I  to  believe?    Who  is  right? 

104 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

First  I  was  a  heathen,  then  a  Mohammedan, 
then  a  Christian;  now  other  white  men 
come  and  tell  me  these  English  are  wrong. 
Perhaps  if  I  follow  these  new  men,  then 
other  white  men  will  come  and  tell  me  these 
also  are  wrong."  Sometimes  King  Mu- 
tesa  was  kind  to  the  French  missionaries: 
sometimes  he  seemed  to  favor  the  English 
more.  Sometimes  he  was  disagreeable  to 
both.  Since  the  white  men  in  the  country 
were  regarded  as  the  personal  guests  of  the 
king,  Mutesa  was  expected  to  give  them 
homes  to  live  in  and  from  his  royal  bounty 
to  provide  their  daily  food.  This  he  did 
most  generously  until  after  the  French  Cath- 
olics came.  Then  many  a  day  both  English 
and  French  alike  suffered  from  hunger  be- 
cause Mutesa  neglected  to  send  them  ba- 
nanas and  cowry-shells,  which  were  Uganda 
money.  The  urgent  suggestion  even 
reached  the  Englishmen  that  they  should 
i 'clear  out  as  quickly  as  possible,  as  the 
king's  soldiers  were  only  waiting  to  kill  them 
all."    Later  by  several  weeks,  they  heard 

105 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


that  Mutesa  was  very  ill  and  did  not  expect 
to  recover;  that  a  meeting  of  chiefs  and 
Arabs  had  been  held,  at  which  it  was  de- 
cided to  murder  all  the  Englishmen,  should 
Mutesa  die. 

Requests  from  the  missionaries  for  per- 
mission to  leave  the  country  were  persist- 
ently refused  by  the  king.  Finally,  how- 
ever, he  decided  to  send  three  of  his  own 
subjects  to  visit  the  great  Queen  Victoria 
and  two  missionaries  were  allowed  to  go  as 
an  escort.  Two  others  of  the  party  left 
Uganda  to  start  missionary  work  hi  a  city 
several  hundred  miles  south  of  the  end  of 
the  lake,  and  Mr.  Pearson  accompanied  them 
for  a  short  distance,  to  get  supplies.  For 
some  months,  Mr.  Mackay  and  Mr.  Litch- 
field were  left  alone  in  Uganda. 

Strange  to  say,  during  these  months  King 
Mutesa  turned  about  and  showed  his  bet- 
ter face.  In  the  many  discussions  at  court 
from  week  to  week,  he  usually  took  Mackay 's 
part.  The  Sunday  services  again  were  held 
regularly. 

106 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 

Mutesa  became  enthusiastic  over  the  sub- 
ject of  book  knowledge,  and  even  com- 
manded all  his  chiefs,  officials,  pages,  and 
soldiers  to  learn  to  read.  No  one  could 
quite  explain  the  sudden  change  which  had 
come  over  him.  The  mission  house  was  be- 
seiged  by  eager  learners.  All  day  long 
Mackay  and  Litchfield  were  never  without 
pupils  about  them,  some  of  whom  were  wait- 
ing even  at  daylight.  It  was  fortunate  for 
them  that  the  small  printing-press  had  ar- 
rived. Long  into  the  night  they  worked, 
printing  sheets  which  during  the  day  men 
and  boys  were  taught  to  read.  All  the 
blank  paper  they  had  was  used  and  much  of 
their  personal  writing-paper;  yet  the  de- 
mand could  not  be  satisfied. 

On  his  return  from  the  southern  end  of 
the  lake,  Mr.  Pearson  was  greatly  surprised 
at  the  change  in  the  situation.  ' '  On  several 
occasions,  when  going  to  the  palace,"  said 
he,  "I  saw  small  groups  sitting  under  the 
shade  of  some  high  fence,  going  through 
their  sheets ;  on  the  way  I  met  many  carry- 

107 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


ing  their  sheets  rolled  up  nicely,  with  a  cov- 
ering of  bark  cloth  for  the  hand.  At  the 
court  the  chiefs  sat  waiting  for  the  king  to 
open  taraza,  and  passed  the  time  with  their 
sheets. 

"I  had  one  thought  in  my  mind,  surely 
this  is  the  finger  of  God. ' ' 

King  Mutesa  would  have  done  for  a  Chi- 
nese puzzle.  One  Sabbath  in  court,  in  the 
midst  of  the  enthusiasm  over  reading,  he 
made  a  sudden  request  of  Mr.  Mackay. 
After  the  Scripture  lesson  was  read,  he 
asked  abruptly,  "Can  any  one  baptize?" 

"No,"  was  the  answer. 

"Can  you?" 

"No,  but  the  clergyman  is  qualified  to  do 
so." 

"I  wish  to  be  baptized  and  my  chiefs." 

Mr.  Mackay  told  the  king  that  only  those 
who  were  true  Christians  should  be  bap- 
tized. Jesus  had  said,  as  one  could  tell  the 
kind  of  tree  by  the  fruit  it  bore,  so  one 
could  tell  a  true  Christian  by  the  sort  of  life 
he  lived.     Mr.  Mackay  had  not  seen  either 

108 


WHITE  MEN  AND  BLACK  MEN 


him  or  liis  chiefs  giving  up  lying,  witchcraft, 
murder,  Sabbath-breaking,  or  any  of  their 
evil  habits.  Then,  too,  if  the  king  wished 
to  be  baptized,  he  must  be  willing  to  live  with 
only  one  wife. 

Mutesa  acknowledged  that  the  Uganda 
custom  of  having  a  great  many  wives  did 
much  harm ;  yet  he  had  once  resolved  to  live 
two  years  with  no  wife  at  all,  he  said,  but 
after  two  months  he  did  as  he  had  always 
done. 

Several  days  later,  Mackay  went  to  the 
palace  and  found  the  king  arguing  with  the 
Arabs  over  the  Koran,  their  sacred  book. 
He  again  showed  interest  in  the  subject  of 
baptism.  He  said  he  would  put  away  his 
wives  and  follow  Christ  truly.  He  wanted 
one  wife  only  in  their  place,  and  preferred 
that  she  be  a  white  woman.  Since  he  was 
a  king,  he  said,  his  wife  should  be  a  king's 
daughter.  He  tried  to  persuade  Mr. 
Mackay  to  write  to  Queen  Victoria  for  one 
of  her  daughters.  He  would  give  a  thou- 
sand elephant  tusks  for  her. 

109 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Mr.  Mackay  told  him  that  he  would  prob- 
ably not  be  able  to  get  her,  for  in  England 
no  woman  ever  married  unless  she  wished  to 
do  so.  At  this,  Mutesa  was  very  much  sur- 
prised, and  without  more  ado  court  was  dis- 
missed. 

Like  the  tall  grass  about  his  own  court- 
yard when  shaken  by  the  wind,  Mutesa 
swayed  back  and  forth,  uncertain  in  his  at- 
titude towards  his  visitors.  He  gloried  over 
having  the  white  men  in  his  capital  because 
of  the  presents  they  brought  and  the  things 
they  could  do.  Now  he  would  favor  the 
French,  and  again  he  would  favor  the  En- 
glish, so  that  he  could  keep  them  both  in 
the  country.  The  missionaries  knew  not 
what  to  expect  of  him  or  how  much  to  be- 
lieve of  what  he  said.  Yet  there  was  no 
insult  or  privation  they  were  unwilling  to 
endure  if  only  in  the  end  Mutesa  could  be 
brought  to  be  a  follower  of  Christ. 


110 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    KING    AND    THE    WIZARD 

A  BOUT  Christmas  time  in  the  year  1879, 
-£^-  there  were  two  names  which,  in  the 
region  of  Uganda's  capital,  seemed  to  be  on 
everybody's  lips.  One  was  that  of  Mu- 
kasa,  the  great  wizard  who  lived  on  an  is- 
land in  Victoria  Lake,  and  the  other  was 
the  name  of  Mr.  Mackay.  The  great  wiz- 
ard's name  was  always  spoken  with  rever- 
ence and  fear ;  Mackay 's  was  usually  coupled 
with  a  curse.  Indeed,  many  would  have 
been  glad  to  see  him  tortured  to  death. 

For  some  time  it  had  been  rumored  that 
the  great  wizard  of  the  lake  was  on  his  way 
to  the  capital.  Month  after  month,  Arab 
traders  had  tried  to  get  away  from  the  coun- 
try to  take  their  ivory  and  slaves  to  the 
coast;  but,  when  they  went  to  the  £>ort  ou 

111 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


the  lake,  they  were  always  refused  canoes 
because,  it  was  said,  "The  great  wizard  of 
the  Lake  is  about  to  visit  the  king."  The 
great  spirit  or  god  of  Uganda  was  supposed 
to  be  living  within  this  wizard,  and  for  this 
reason  he  was  greatly  feared. 

Many  other  less  powerful  spirits  or  gods 
were  worshiped  by  the  Waganda.  When 
the  people  were  anxious  about  their  crops, 
they  went  to  the  god  of  food;  when  threat- 
ened by  famine,  they  went  to  the  god  of 
famine ;  in  time  of  war  offerings  were  made 
to  the  god  of  war;  on  other  occasions,  it 
was  the  god  of  the  earthquake,  or  the  god 
of  the  plague,  or  the  god  of  the  smallpox, 
which  was  most  worshiped. 

Here  and  there,  along  the  roadside,  under 
some  tree,  or  in  the  private  courtyards  of 
the  chiefs  were  to  be  seen  the  tiny  huts, 
already  described,  which  were  sacred  to  one 
or  another  of  these  gods.  In  some  of  them 
dwelt  the  wizards  and  witches,  in  whom  the 
spirits  or  gods  were  supposed  to  live. 

Very  plainly  were  these  strange  folk 
112 


The  Great   Wizard  cf  the  Lake  es   About  to  Vise:   the 
King  " 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


dressed,  usually  in  simple  robes  of  goat- 
skins only ;  and  they  carried  clubs  of  crooked 
wood  decorated  with  iron  knobs  and  bells. 
Now  and  then  a  wizard,  assuming  a  high  fal- 
setto voice,  would  rave  like  a  lunatic.  The 
people  thinking  that  the  spirit  within  him 
was  angry,  would  bring  him  cows  and  chick- 
ens and  goats  as  gifts  and  even  a  great  many 
pots  of  beer,  for  the  spirits  were  supposed 
to  need  very  much  to  drink.  When  offering 
such  gifts  the  Waganda  would  be  praying 
the  best  kind  of  praj^ers  they  knew,  while 
the  wizard  would  make  them  think  more 
prayers  were  needed. 

These  men  and  women  of  magic  also  made 
a  great  many  trinkets,  sometimes  simply 
from  bunches  of  grass,  or  again  from  the 
teeth  of  animals,  or  from  odd-shaped  stones. 
After  mumbling  mysterious  words  over 
these  trifles,  the  sacred  men  sold  the  trin- 
kets to  tlie  people  as  charms.  When  worn 
about  the  neck  or  ankles,  or  when  placed 
above  the  doorways  of  the  homes  or  hung 
about  the  tiny  huts  where  they  made  their 

113 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


offerings,  the  Waganda  thought  these 
charms  a  protection  against  the  numerous 
evils  over  which  the  gods  had  control. 

Of  all  these  spirits,  the  greatest  was  the 
god  of  the  lake.  If  a  chief  wished  to  learn 
what  this  god  could  tell  him  of  the  chances 
for  success  in  some  war,  shortly  to  be  entered 
upon,  he  would  go  to  the  god's  island  home 
in  the  lake.  There  lived  an  old  man, 
named  Mukasa,  the  god's  wizard. 

The  chief  would  meet  the  wizard  in  a 
small,  dark  hut,  where  there  was  a  little 
wooden  stool  covered  with  a  heap  of  bark 
cloth.  On  one  end  of  the  leopard  skin  on 
which  stood  the  sacred  stool,  the  chief  would 
kneel,  and  on  the  other  end  the  old  wizard 
would  take  his  place.  After  some  time  the 
spirit  would  supposedly  enter  underneath 
the  bark  cloths  over  the  stool.  The  wizard, 
thereupon,  would  be  thrown  into  a  frenzy 
and  would  pour  forth  unearthly  noises,  giv- 
ing the  chief  now  and  then  a  word  which 
might  be  understood.  After  being  duly  im- 
pressed by  this  weird  proceeding,  the  chief 

114 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


would  leave,  believing  that  he  had  heard  the 
words  of  the  great  spirit. 

Mukasa,  the  great  wizard  of  the  lake, 
now  actually  left  his  island  home  and  vis- 
ited the  capital  of  Uganda.  For  two  years 
king  Mutesa  had  suffered  with  a  painful 
disease.  Many  native  doctors  had  tried  to 
cure  him.  For  a  time  he  had  been  treated 
by  one  of  the  missionaries,  who  was  a  physi- 
cian, and  Mutesa  was  temporarily  benefited ; 
but  refusing  to  give  up  some  of  his  wicked 
habits  of  life  which  had  first  brought  on  the 
trouble,  he  received  no  permanent  good. 
Since  he  suffered  intensely  and  was  daily 
growing  weaker,  it  was  rumored  again  and 
again  that  he  would  soon  die. 

Finally,  the  queen  mother  together  with 
his  wives  urged  him  to  go  to  Mukasa,  the 
wizard  of  the  great  spirit,  who  they  were 
confident  could  heal  him.  Upon  his  insist- 
ing that  he  could  not  leave  the  capital,  they 
persuaded  him  to  allow  Mukasa  to  come  to 
him. 

At  last  the  wizard  came,  and  his  camp  was 
115 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


set  up  a  mile  and  a  half  southwest  of  the 
missionaries'  headquarters.  Every  day 
could  be  heard  the  roll  of  drums  beaten  in 
his  honor,  and  men  carrying  dozens  of  loads 
of  plantains  from  the  king  to  the  wizard's 
camp  passed  by  the  missionaries'  house. 
Cattle,  chickens,  and  even  servants  were  sent 
as  presents  to  him.  He  would  heal  the  king 
by  a  single  word,  every  one  was  saying. 
It  would  be  some  days,  however,  before  he 
would  make  his  way  to  the  palace;  for  he 
must  wait  for  the  coming  of  the  new  moon 
to  begin  his  work. 

These  days  of  waiting  seemed  to  the  mis- 
sionaries most  critical  days.  Should  king 
Mutesa  receive  this  heathen  wizard  at  his 
court,  he  would  be  announcing  to  all  his  sub- 
jects that  he  had  wholly  rejected  the  white 
man's  religion  and  was  again  as  much  a 
heathen  as  ever  in  the  past.  To  think  that 
perhaps  their  two  years'  work  would  end  in 
such  a  failure,  was  sorely  disappointing. 
If  ever  they  prayed  earnestly  they  did  now. 
Every  opportunity  that  arose,  they  were  de- 

116, 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


termined  to  use  in  trying  to  persuade  King 
Mutesa  to  refuse  to  see  this  heathen  sor- 
cerer. 

The  morning  of  Thursday,  December  the 
eleventh,  brought  a  day  long  remembered 
among  the  court  folk  and  the  missionaries. 
Baraza  had  already  commenced  when  Mr. 
Mackay  arrived.  After  various  subjects 
had  been  discussed,  and  seeing  that  Mutesa 
was  in  good  spirits,  Mr.  Mackay  stepped  for- 
ward and  sat  down  on  a  stool  before  the 
king. 

"May  I  have  permission  to  ask  one  ques- 
tion of  the  king?"  he  said. 

Mutesa  replied,  "Say  on." 

"What  is  a  wizard?"  he  asked. 

The  question  was  a  surprise  to  every  one. 
Some  were  offended,  because  they  believed  in 
the  power  of  the  wizard;  others  smiled,  be- 
cause they  thought  that  the  people  were  be- 
lieving foolishness.  Mutesa  seemed  to  take 
the  question  kindly,  and  began  to  explain 
what  wizards  were,  that  in  them  lived  the 
spirits  of  the  gods.     He  also  said  that  the 

117 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


remains  of  his  dead  ancestors  were  guarded 
by  persons  who  were  believed  to  be  able  to 
talk  with  the  departed  spirits,  and  that  at 
times  the  spirits  of  the  dead  kings  entered 
into  them. 

Mr.  Mackay  told  him  that  there  were  no 
living  men  who  could  talk  with  the  spirits 
of  the  dead  and  that  those  who  claimed  they 
could  do  so  told  falsehoods,  that  there  were 
many  men  of  that  sort  in  Uganda,  but  the 
chief  of  them  all  was  the  wizard  Mukasa. 

"I  believe  you  have  little  confidence  in  the 
powers  of  such  pretenders,"  he  continued, 
' '  but  I  have  heard  that  several  of  your  chiefs 
have  been  advising  you  to  go  to  the  wizard 
to  be  cured.  I  sit  before  you,  your  servant 
and  the  servant  of  Almighty  God,  and  in 
his  name  I  beg  of  you  have  no  dealings  with 
this  wizard,  whether  a  chief  tries  to  per- 
suade you  to  do  so,  or  a  common  man  ad- 
vises you."  The  king  did  not  seem  to  op- 
pose him,  and  translated  his  words  to  the 
court. 

Mr.  Mackay  continued:  "If  this  Mukasa 
118 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


is  a  wizard,  then  he  is  a  god,  and  thus  there 
are  two  gods  in  Uganda — the  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty and  Mukasa ;  but  if  Mukasa  is  only 
a  man,  as  many  say  he  is,  then  there  are 
two  kings  in  Uganda — Mutesa,  whom  we  all 
acknowledge  and  honor,  and  this  Mukasa, 
who  gives  himself  out  as  some  great  one." 

Mutesa  seemed  to  see  the  point  and  again 
translated  Mackaj^'s  words  to  the  court. 
He  told  him  that  he  was  intending  to  hold 
a  council  of  his  chiefs  with  a  view  to  com- 
ing to  some  decision  in  the  matter.  Mr. 
Mackay  urged  that  there  was  no  need  of 
that;  for,  if  the  king  himself  believed  the 
wizard  to  be  an  enemy  of  God,  it  would  not 
be  difficult  for  him  to  lead  his  chiefs  to  see 
how  absurd  the  wizard's  claims  were. 

Then  Mutesa  opened  a  discussion  with  his 
chiefs  on  "What  is  a  wizard?"  He  ended 
the  talk  by  saying,  "If  the  wizard  is  a  man, 
he  is  not  a  wizard ;  for  a  wizard  is  a  spirit  or 
god." 

One  of  Mr.  Mackay 's  letters  gives  the  rest 
of  the  story  of  that  day  at  court:     "I  said 

119 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


that  this  Mukasa  was  practically  causing  re- 
bellion in  the  country,  for  he  disobeyed  Mu- 
tesa  's  orders,  and  asserted  his  right  over  the 
Lake  as  before  that  of  the  king.  It  was 
more  than  five  months  since  Mutesa  had  or- 
dered his  Arab  traders  to  be  supplied  with 
boats  to  go  to  Usukuma,  [district  of  Kagei] 
yet  those  traders  were  not  able  to  start  be- 
cause of  Mukasa 's  counter-orders.  This 
was  a  state  of  things  that  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  exist.  In  the  Book  of  God  I  was 
prepared  to  show  him  that  both  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  all  sorcerers  were  de- 
nounced as  liars,  and  were  ranked  in  the 
lowest  scale  of  iniquity.  Moses  commanded 
them  to  be  put  to  death.  In  our  own  coun- 
try, in  times  past,  they  were  put  to  the  stake. 
But  we  did  not  as  Christians  sanction  so  se- 
vere a  measure,  nor  did  we  come  here  to  ad- 
vise the  shedding  of  blood ;  but  still,  on  look- 
ing at  the  express  command  of  God  as  stated 
in  his  Book,  we  did  advise  that  every  man 
who  deceived  people  into  believing  that  he 
was  possessed  of  a  spirit  should  be  ordered 

120 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


to  cease  such  deception,  and  if  he  chose  to 
continue  it,  he  should  be  sent  to  prison. 
These  men  were  great  liars,  and  Mukasa,  as 
the  head  wizard,  was  the  greatest  liar,  and 
the  greatest  rebel  in  the  country. 

"Mutesa  seemed  rather  delighted  at  the 
decidedness  with  which  I  spoke,  and  trans- 
lated everything,  even  recurring  to  the  other 
way  I  put  it :  'If  Mukasa  is  a  god,  we  have 
two  gods ;  if  he  is  a  man,  then  there  are  two 
kings  here.'  Those  who  were  at  first  in- 
clined to  defend  the  evil  genius  had  at  length 
nothing  to  say  for  him.  Mutesa 's  prime 
minister  mentioned  that  Lukonge  called 
himself  god  of  the  south  end  of  the  lake. 
One  of  the  Arabs  recommended  waiting  a 
couple  of  days  to  see  what  Mukasa  had  to 
say  for  himself.  'What  was  to  be  done?' 
was  the  question." 

"  'Lukonge  is  a  heathen,'  I  said,  'and 
knows  not  God.' 

"  'But  I  know  God,'  Mutesa  responded. 

"Yes,  it  is  because  you  know  God,  and  I 
believe  wish  to  serve  him,  that  I  now  ask 

121 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


you  to  choose  one  or  the  other,  and  not  to 
honor  an  enemy  of  God.  In  all  history  we 
read  that  God  was  with  every  king  that 
feared  him,  while  those  who  went  astray 
after  other  gods  came  to  an  end  of  shame. 
God  has  said,  'Them  that  honor  me  I  will 
honor;  and  they  that  despise  me  shall  be 
lightly  esteemed.'  " 

Some  loads  of  plantains  and  other  dona- 
tions were  at  this  moment  presented,  and 
other  disturbances  arising,  Mutesa  told 
Mackay  that  the  subject  would  have  to  be 
dropped  for  the  time,  but  he  would  attend 
to  what  Mackay  had  said.  Thanking  the 
king,  the  white  man  retired  to  his  seat. 

When  court  was  dismissed,  the  mission- 
ary received  many  a  friendly  hand-shake 
from  the  chiefs.  Some  of  them,  who,  he 
supposed,  were  the  strongest  advocates  of 
the  wizard,  greeted  him  in  a  friendly  way, 
although  some  of  them  gave  him  the  curi- 
ous look  of  those  who  felt  they  had  been  de- 
feated. 

Another  opportunity  came  the  next  Sab- 
122 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


bath.  "The  da}T  was  very  fine,"  Mr.  Mac- 
kay  wrote,  "and  many  were  present  at  ser- 
vice. After  prayers,  instead  of  our  usual 
reading  in  St.  Luke,  I  turned  over  the 
Scriptures  from  Exodus  to  Revelation,  read- 
ing a  host  of  passages  to  show  the  mind  of 
God  toward  dealers  in  witchcraft.  The 
laws  of  God  to  Moses,  the  examples  of  Saul 
and  of  Ahaziah,  the  manifestation  of  our 
Lord  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles — especially  the  case  of 
Elymas — the  works  of  the  flesh  contrasted 
with  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  in  Galatians, 
fifth  chapter,  and,  finally,  the  list  of  those 
who  may  not  enter  through  the  gates  of  the 
heavenly  city  (Revelation  xxii.  15).  All 
these  I  read,  in  order,  having  previously 
written  out  the  passages. 

' '  I  had  wonderful  attention  to-day — much 
more  than  usual.  I  was  gratified  to  hear 
one  of  the  chiefs  say  that  the  list  of  pass- 
ages read  was  enough  to  set  the  matter  at 
rest,  and  there  could  be  no  more  dispute  as 
to  the  unlawfulness  of  witchcraft." 

123 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


It  was  but  a  few  nights  till  the  new  moon 
would  appear.  The  following  Saturday, 
however,  brought  disappointing  news.  Mr. 
Mackay  heard  from  one  of  his  pupils  that  all 
the  chiefs  had  supplied  men  to  build  three 
small  huts  for  Mukasa  and  his  companions 
in  the  king's  inner  court,  and  that  they  had 
worked  late  by  moonlight  in  order  to  have 
them  finished  by  Monday  morning  when  the 
wizard  was  to  arrive. 

There  was  still  a  little  more  delay,  how- 
ever, and  Mukasa  did  not  arrive  as  soon  as 
was  expected.  Mackay  was  given  another 
opportunity  to  speak  to  the  king  Monday 
morning.  A  few  minutes  after  all  were 
seated  for  the  ~baraza,  Mr.  Mackay  arose  and 
sat  down  in  front  of  the  king,  squatting 
like  a  tailor  on  the  floor,  as  all  the  chiefs  and 
Arabs  did. 

Mutesa  seemed  to  know  what  Mackay 
wanted  to  talk  about,  and  he  gave  orders  for 
all  music  and  other  noises  outside  the  court 
to  cease  at  once. 

"Is  it  your  pleasure,  King  Mutesa," 
124 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


Mackay  began,  "that  I  should  cease  teach- 
ing the  Word  of  God  at  court  on  Sundays  ?" 

"No,  not  by  any  means." 

"You  and  your  chiefs,"  continued  Mac- 
kay, "have  now  made  up  your  minds  to 
bring  the  wizard  to  stay  at  court.  The 
other  day  your  majesty  admitted  that  he 
was  a  deceiver.  I  have  no  right  to  inter- 
fere with  your  orders  or  whom  you  choose 
as  your  guest;  only  this  visitor,  for  whom 
preparations  are  made,  is  no  ordinary  guest, 
but  is  looked  up  to  by  the  people  as  pos- 
sessed of  powers  which  belong  to  God  alone ; 
We  cannot  mix  up  the  worship  of  God  Al- 
mighty with  the  worship  of  a  man  who  is 
the  enemy  of  God." 

Mutesa  listened  intently,  and  then  said  to 
his  chiefs,  "Do  you  hear  what  Mackay 
says?  He  says  that  we  cannot  bring  the 
wizard  here  without  offending  God." 

1 '  The  wizard  is  only  coming  with  medicine 
to  heal  the  king,"  one  of  the  chiefs  an- 
swered. 

Mackay  replied,  "The  wizard  is  not 
125 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


merely  a  doctor,  but  is  looked  up  to  by  all 
as  a  god,  and  as  being  able  to  heal  people 
by  enchantment." 

"The  white  man  is  right,"  admitted  the 
king.  "I  know  very  well  that  this  Mukasa 
is  coming  to  use  witchcraft." 

"We  should  only  be  delighted  if  Mukasa 
could  cure  the  king,"  continued  Mackay, 
"and  neither  I  nor  any  other  missionary 
would  object  to  his  bringing  medicine  for 
that  purpose." 

"Gabunga  [the  head  chief  on  the  lake] 
came  some  time  ago  to  say  that  Mukasa  was 
able  to  cure  me,"  said  the  king.  "  'Bring  his 
medicine,  then,'  I  said.  Gabunga  brought 
some;  but  said  it  was  of  no  use  unless  the 
wizard  were  present  himself  to  perform  the 
cure.  This  and  that  other  fellow  says  that 
he  is  a  wizard  and  that  the  spirit  of  my 
ancestors  has  gone  into  him;  but  do  you 
think  I  believe  that?" 

"I  believe  Mutesa  has  more  sense  than  to 
believe  anything  of  the  kind,"  said  Mackay, 
"for  when  a  man  dies,  his  soul  returns  to 

126 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


God,  so  that  these  fellows  are  only  liars,  and 
deceive  the  people." 

The  king  replied,  "What  you  say,  Mac- 
kay, is  perfectly  true,  and  I  know  that  all 
witchcraft  is  falsehood." 

Mackay  thanked  Mutesa  for  this  state- 
ment, but  the  prime  minister  and  other 
chiefs  did  not  seem  pleased.  They  saw  no 
harm  in  the  wizard  being  received  with  all 
honor.  He  would  make  medicine  which 
they  would  hang  up  in  the  palace-houses, 
as  Mukasa  was  a  great  medicine-man. 

"Medicine  is  an  excellent  thing,"  repeated 
Mackay,  "but  it  is  not  medicine  that  has 
given  Mukasa  so  great  a  name.  This  is  not 
the  reason  why  he  is  regarded  as  a  wizard, 
but  he  wishes  the  people  to  believe  him  a 
god." 

Again  the  king  seemed  to  agree  with  all 
Mr.  Mackay  had  said.  Much  discussion  fol- 
lowed. Sometimes  the  chiefs  seemed  to  side 
with  the  white  man,  but  usually  they  were 
opposed  to  him.  Again  Mackay  pleaded 
with  Mutesa,  saying: 

127 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


"I  cannot  hinder  the  king  from  having 
the  wizard  as  many  days  at  court  as  he  likes, 
only  I  find  it  my  duty  to  tell  him  that  his  en- 
couraging this  false  person  will  have  a  pow- 
erful effect  in  the  country  in  making  the  peo- 
ple believe  more  strongly  than  ever  in 
witches  and  wizards,  while  King  Mutesa 
himself  does  not  believe  in  them.  I  take 
my  stand  on  the  Word  of  God,  which  says 
that  all  who  use  witchcraft  are  enemies  of 
God." 

Poor  Mutesa  knew  not  what  to  do.  His 
mother  and  his  friends  had  persuaded  him 
to  have  the  wizard  brought  to  his  capital. 
He  acknowledged  that  it  would  be  wrong 
to  receive  him;  yet  he  was  afraid  not  to  do 
as  his  mother  and  his  chiefs  wished. 

"We  are  all  ready  to  honor  and  respect 
your  mother  and  your  relatives,"  again 
Mackay  urged,  "but  God  is  greater  than 
them  all,  and  you  must  choose  which  you 
will  serve,  God,  or  your  relatives."  Baraza 
was  soon  dismissed. 

Mackay 's  last  opportunity  to  plead  at 
128 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


court  came  two  days  before  Christmas. 
When  all  were  seated,  Mr.  Mackay  was 
called  forward,  and  a  woman  was  brought 
in. 

Mutesa  said  to  Mackay,  "This  woman,  my 
aunt,  has  been  sent  to  bring  you  to  the  coun- 
cil of  my  mother,  and  others  of  the  family, 
that  you  may  explain  to  them  why  you  re- 
fuse to  allow  me  to  see  the  wizard." 

"I  will  not  go  to  explain  at  any  other 
court  than  this,"  Mackay  replied.  "I  do 
not  refuse  to  allow  your  majesty  to  see  the 
wizard:  only  as  a  servant  of  God  I  warn 
you  of  the  sin  of  witchcraft.  I  use  no  force, 
but,  as  I  told  your  majesty  yesterday,  it  was 
my  place  to  tell  you  the  truth,  while  you  are 
free  to  follow  or  reject  my  advice." 

All  the  chiefs  began  to  talk  at  once,  and 
the  king  grew  afraid  not  to  act  as  they 
wished. 

Mutesa  then  said,  "Now  we  will  leave 
both  the  Arab's  religion  and  the  Bazungu's 
[white  men's]  religion,  and  will  go  back  to 
the  religion  of  our  fathers." 

129 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Of  course  the  chiefs  were  delighted,  for 
they  boldly  "nyanzigged"  [bowed]  when  he 
finished  speaking,  clapping  their  hands,  say- 
ing "I  thank  you!" 

Mr.  Mackay  was  asked  why  the  mission- 
aries had  come  to  Uganda,  and  what  they 
came  to  do.  "We  came,"  Mackay  an- 
swered, "in  response  to  the  king's  own  re- 
quest to  Stanley,  that  he  wished  white  men 
to  come  and  stop  with  him,  and  to  teach  his 
people  the  knowledge  of  God." 

"I  understood  that  you  came  to  teach  us 
how  to  make  powder  and  guns,  and  what  I 
want  is  men  who  will  do  so,"  said  the  king, 
in  a  show  of  anger. 

"We  did  not  understand  that.  Our  first 
work  is  to  teach  the  Word  of  God,  and  how 
to  read  it." 

"If  to  teach  that  is  your  main  object,  then 
you  are  not  to  teach  any  more.  I  want  you 
to  work  for  me." 

Mackay  replied,  "We  never  have  refused 
to  do  any  work  you  have  wished  us  to  do; 
and  everything  the  king  has  asked  to  be 

130 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


done,  I  have  done.  There  is  scarcely  a  chief 
present  for  whom  I  have  not  done  work." 

He  showed  his  hands,  black  with  daily 
working  in  iron  for  those  very  chiefs  who 
were  saying  the  white  men  would  not  work 
for  them. 

"We  want  you  to  stop  teaching  to  read, 
and  to  do  work  only  for  us  and  the  king," 
shouted  the  chiefs. 

"We  came  for  no  such  purpose,"  replied 
the  missionary.  "If  you  wish  that,  then  we 
cannot  stay." 

' '  Where  will  you  go  ?  " 

"We  shall  go  back  to  England." 

Several  hours  were  spent  in  such  talk,  and 
the  court  wras  again  dismissed. 

At  last  the  time  of  the  new  moon  had 
come  and  the  following  day  was  the  wiz- 
ard's great  day  of  triumph.  The  mission- 
aries did  not  go  to  the  palace  themselves; 
but,  through  a  few  of  the  more  friendly  na- 
tives, they  learned  what  had  happened.  It 
was  reported  that  four  or  five  of  the  head 
chiefs  had  gone  to  the  king  and  told  him  that 

131 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


if  he  did  not  receive  the  wizard  and  have  the 
old  religion  back,  they  would  take  his  throne 
from  him  and  make  one  of  his  sons  king. 

Mr.  Mackay  writes:  "Before  dawn  I  was 
awakened  by  a  terrible  beating  of  drums  in 
the  neighborhood.  I  got  up,  and  looked  out 
in  a  dense  fog.  I  gathered  at  once  that  it 
was  the  procession  of  the  wizard  going  to 
the  palace. 

"The  sound  of  drums  got  nearer,  and  the 
united  shrill  cries  of  hundreds  of  women 
became  more  distinct,  and  then  faded  away 
as  the  great  procession  turned  up  the  high- 
way to  the  king's  palace.  I  felt  relieved 
that  the  party  did  not  have  to  pass  our 
house,  for  who  knows  what  a  capricious  and 
fanatical  mob  might  have  done  on  a  mo- 
ment's impulse?  But  I  retired  into  my 
room  with  the  feeling  that  we  were  in  the 
hands  of  our  loving  Father,  who  will  not 
allow  a  hair  of  our  heads  to  perish. 

"I  afterward  learned  that  the  wizard  put 
up  at  the  house  of  Gabunga  [head  chief  on 
the  lake],  who  is  now  at  the  capital,  till 

132 


KING  AND  WIZARD 


midday,  when  he  was  received  at  the  pal- 
ace. The  king  was  removed  from  his  ordin- 
ary house,  and  seated  in  the  main  court, 
where  the  three  huts  were  built  for  the  wiz- 
ard and  his  two  companions.  By  some  re- 
ports, Mutesa  and  his  wives  alone  were  in- 
side the  house,  the  katikiro  sitting  in  the 
doorway,  and  all  the  other  chiefs  sitting  out- 
side, while  the  wizard  also  sat  outside  near 
the  door,  his  companions  sitting  near  him. 

"All  agree  in  saying  that  a  vast  quantity 
of  beer  was  consumed  by  the  wizard  and 
chiefs,  Mutesa  scarcely  touching  the  liquor ; 
that  the  king  sat  silent  all  the  time,  while 
the  wizard  sang.  Some  say  that  Mutesa 
paid  little  attention  to  the  wizard,  but  called 
forward  the  small  sorcerers  to  play  and 
dance  before  him.  Few  were  near  enough 
to  know  anything  that  the  wizard  said  or 
sung;  but  one  man  says  that  he  predicted 
war  in  the  country  from  the  presence  of 
strangers,  not  now,  perhaps,  but  within  four 
or  five  years." 

For  several  days  the  great  wizard  and  his 
133 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


companions  presented  themselves  at  court, 
going  through  their  chanting,  dancing,  and 
drinking  as  on  the  first  day.  Finally,  the 
last  day  of  the  year,  Mutesa  refused  to  see 
the  wizard  again  because  the  cure  which  was 
expected  had  failed.  Mukasa  was  obliged 
to  leave  and  return  to  his  island  home. 

So  the  year  ended.  King  Mutesa  had 
yielded  to  the  persuasions  of  his  chiefs  and 
relatives  and  had  returned  to  his  old  heathen 
ways  only  to  be  disappointed  again  by  the 
false  pretensions  of  the  heathen  wizard. 
What  might  next  be  expected  no  one  dared 
to  predict. 


134 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    TWO-FACED    MUTESA    AND    THE    MOHAM- 
MEDANS 

TZ"ING  Mutesa  had  openly  rejected  both 
-**  the  religion  of  the  white  men  and  that 
of  the  Arabs,  and  declared  himself  again  a 
worshiper  of  the  heathen  spirits.  For  him, 
however,  it  was  as  easy  to  change  his  reli- 
gion as  to  change  his  clothes.  Not  more 
than  two  weeks  after  he  had  compelled  his 
court  to  do  reverence  to  the  wizard,  he  said 
to  his  chiefs : 

''Why  are  you  not  continuing  to  learn  to 
read?  You  are  all  trying  to  gather  riches 
for  this  world.  You  had  better  prepare  for 
the  world  to  come.  Here  are  white  men 
who  have  come  far  from  Europe  to  teach  you 
religion.    Why  do  you  not  learn  V 

He  even  went  so  far  as  to  distribute  many 
135 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


reading  sheets  among  Ms  chiefs  and  pages. 
As  a  result,  some  who  because  of  fear  had 
ceased  going  to  the  missionaries '  home,  now 
renewed  their  visits,  and  others  were  made 
bold  to  begin  to  study  for  the  first  time. 

Yet  during  the  months  which  followed  the 
wizard's  visit,  the  missionaries  were  very 
much  neglected  by  Mutesa.  He  no  longer 
sent  them  presents  of  bananas,  goats,  and 
chickens,  and  their  supply  of  cowry-shells 
for  buying  food  became  exhausted.  Most 
of  their  clothes  were  either  badly  worn  or 
had  been  pawned  for  food.  They  needed 
also  oil  for  their  lamps,  paper  for  printing, 
and  many  other  things  not  to  be  had  in 
Uganda. 

So  in  April,  1880,  Mr.  Mackay  started  on 
a  journey  to  Uyui,  several  hundred  miles 
south  of  the  lake  where  were  other  English 
missionaries  who  had  lately  come  from  Eng- 
land with  fresh  supplies.  Some  thirty 
days,  Mr.  Mackay  and  his  companions  spent 
in  "frail,  tiny  barks,  made  of  rough  hewn 
boards,  sewed  together  with  twigs,"  and  an- 

136 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

other  month  was  occupied  in  traveling  over- 
land to  Uyui.  During  the  time  Mr.  Mac- 
kay spent  merely  in  going  to  Uyui,  their 
nearest  supply  house,  perhaps  five  hundred 
miles  from  Uganda,  one  could  now  make  the 
trip  from  New  York  City  to  Shanghai, 
China,  and  return.  This  trip  kept  Mr. 
Mackay  away  from  the  capital  for  nine 
months,  Mr.  Pearson  being  the  only  Protest- 
ant missionary  left  in  Uganda. 

About  three  months  after  Mr.  Mackay 
had  left  the  capital,  the  fickle  Mutesa  again 
changed  his  religion.  One  night  he  dreamed 
that  he  saw  ten  moons  and  an  eleventh 
which  was  both  larger  and  brighter  than  any 
of  the  others.  The  big  bright  moon  waxed 
more  and  more  brilliant  and  grew  larger 
and  larger  until  the  ten  other  moons  came 
and  bowed  down  before  it.  While  Mutesa 
was  wondering  what  the  dream  meant,  he 
thought  he  saw  two  angels  standing  before 
him  and  he  was  frightened  by  their  angry 
looks. 

"Why  have  you  and  your  court  ceased  to 
137* 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


pray  the  Mohammedan  prayers  ? ' '  one  of  the 
angels  asked. 

Now  all  Mohammedans  are  taught  to  pray 
five  times  a  day.  In  order  that  every  one 
may  know  just  the  time  when  the  prayers 
should  he  said,  a  priest  from  the  top  of  some 
high  building  calls  loudly  Arabic  words, 
which  mean  "God  is  great.  I  bear  witness 
that  there  is  no  god  but  God!  I  bear  wit- 
ness that  Mohammed  is  the  Prophet  of  God ! 
Come  to  prayers !  Come  to  prayers !  Come 
to  salvation!  There  is  no  other  god  but 
God!"  Immediately,  every  good  Moham- 
medan, no  matter  where  he  is  or  what  his 
task,  believes  that  his  first  duty  is  to  wash 
his  hands  and  kneel  down  to  pray. 

So  the  angel  said  to  Mutesa:  "If  you 
wish  to  be  prosperous  and  your  land  to 
grow,  return  at  once  to  this  old  custom  and 
call  the  people  to  prayer  as  the  Koran  com- 
mands. ' ' 

On  telling  the  dream  to  his  wives,  Mutesa 
was  easily  persuaded  to  think  that  he  was 
like  the  large  moon  and  that  soon  ten  king- 

138 


Come  to  Pbayebs!  Come  to  Salvatiox!  '•' 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

doms  would  come  to  him  and  beg  him  to 
rule  over  them. 

On  meeting  his  chiefs  at  morning  baraza, 
the  proud  king  repeated  his  dream  to  them 
also.  Then  and  there,  he  commanded  them 
all  to  obey  the  order  of  the  angels  and  to 
pray,  " La-Uaha-illa- Allah,  Muhammedun 
Rasul  Allah" — one  of  the  creeds  which 
Mohammedans  are  taught  and  which  they 
repeat  again  and  again.  The  Arabic  words 
when  translated  mean,  ' '  There  is  no  god  but 
God;  and  Mohammed  is  the  Prophet  of 
God." 

Mutesa's  command  needed  merely  to  be 
given  and  the  royal  palace  resounded  with 
the  prayers  of  scores  of  men  who  were  ready 
to  follow  any  religion  their  king  might 
choose. 

Mutesa  announced  that  he  himself  was  no 
longer  a  worshiper  of  the  gods  of  Uganda  or 
a  follower  of  Isa  [Jesus],  but,  from  hence- 
forth, his  religion  was  that  of  Mohammed. 
In  the  church,  within  the  royal  enclosure 
where  only  a  short  while  before  men  had 

139 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


prayed  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  now  each  day  Mo- 
hammedan prayers  were  chanted.  Every 
chief,  wherever  he  might  go,  was  accom- 
panied by  a  boy  carrying  a  mat  and  a  ket- 
tle, so  that  when  the  call  to  prayer  was 
heard,  he  might  wash  his  hands  and  kneel  on 
the  mat  in  obedience  to  the  Koran. 

Some  days  after  the  public  announcement 
of  his  new  religion,  Mutesa  declared  that 
since  he  had  determined  to  follow  the  dream, 
he  had  been  cured  of  his  long-standing  sick- 
ness. For  some  time  he  held  baraza  regu- 
larly in  the  grand  style  which  had  been  hab- 
itual years  before,  but  which  was  set  aside 
after  he  began  to  suffer  from  his  lingering 
disease.  Soon,  however,  the  malady  proved 
as  serious  as  before. 

During  this  period  when  the  Mohamme- 
dans enjoyed  the  royal  favor,  the  Arabs 
gloried  alike  in  their  own  power  and  in  the 
seeming  defeat  of  their  enemies,  the  white 
men. 

On  Mr.  Mackay's  return  from  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  lake,  they  were  ready  to  tell 

140 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

the  king  the  most  unthinkable  series  of 
falsehoods  about  the  missionary.  These 
they  hoped  would  further  prejudice  his 
mind  against  Mackay  and  cause  Mutesa 
either  to  drive  the  white  teacher  from  the 
country  or  to  take  his  life. 

At  ~baraza  one  morning,  when  one  Catho- 
lic priest  and  two  Arabs  were  present,  the 
crafty  Mutesa,  always  eager  to  start  excit- 
ing discussions  at  court,  said:  "Makay  mi- 
lalu,"  ("Mackay  is  mad").  Having  waited 
for  just  such  an  opportunity,  the  Arabs  now 
boldly  presented  their  charges. 

They  said  that  Mackay  was  a  criminal  of 
the  worst  sort;  that  he  had  fled  from  Eng- 
land because  he  had  there  murdered  two 
men;  that  when  he  boarded  the  steamer 
bound  for  Africa,  he  carried  two  revolvers 
in  his  hands,  with  which  he  threatened  to 
shoot  the  captain  on  the  spot  if  he  refused 
to  take  him  to  Zanzibar;  that,  from  Zanzi- 
bar in  turn,  he  was  compelled  to  flee  because 
of  more  murders  he  committed  there;  that 
in  Unyanyembe  he  had  walked  about  carry- 

141 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


ing  two  revolvers  hoping  for  an  opportunity 
to  kill  the  governor;  that  it  was  very  dan- 
gerous to  allow  him  to  remain  in  Uganda, 
for  he  was  insane  and  only  tried  to  murder 
people.  They  further  declared  that  Mac- 
kay,  being  very  much  afraid  that  the  story 
of  his  crimes  would  reach  Mutesa's  ears, 
had,  on  that  very  morning,  given  the  speaker 
a  present  and  on  his  knees  had  besought  him 
not  to  make  public  the  facts  about  his 
wicked  life. 

When  the  story  of  that  morning's  haraza 
was  told  Mr.  Mackay,  what  were  his 
thoughts?  In  his  journal  that  night,  these 
were  some  of  the  words  he  wrote : 

"God  is  over  all,  and  he  is  our  God  and 
our  sole  defense.  In  fever,  when  one's 
nerves  are  weak,  many  doubts  arise  in  the 
mind,  and  through  morbidly  dwelling  on  the 
number  of  our  bloodthirsty  enemies,  faith 
almost  fails.  Yet  the  fever  subsides,  and 
courage  rises  with  better  health,  and  one 
cannot  but  feel  a  deep  inward,  peaceful  con- 
sciousness that,  though  we  are  absolutely 

142 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

shut  off  from  every  human  help,  yet  we 
have  protection  more  secure  than  any  con- 
sul can  afford,  even  the  omnipotent  arm  of 
Jehovah. 

"For  the  terrible  charges  laid  against  me, 
some  proposed  in  court  that  I  should  be  put 
to  death.  Even  the  charge  of  carrying  my 
revolver  is  false,  for  I  almost  invariably 
march  unarmed,  having  only  my  umbrella. 
Mutesa,  however,  said  that  the  best  thing  to 
do  was  to  send  me  home,  as  being  a  raiser  of 
much  noise  and  row  in  court.  He  knows 
very  well  that  this  charge,  too,  is  unfounded. 
One  of  the  French  missionaries  compli- 
mented me  on  the  quiet  manner  in  which  I 
talked  with  Mutesa,  while  Arabs  and  others 
spoke  loudly  and  excitedly. 

"We  now  can  understand  to  the  full  the 
meaning  of  that  blessing  which  we  are 
promised  when  men  shall  revile  us,  and  per- 
secute us,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil 
against  us  falsely  for  His  sake.  We  are 
His,  and  it  matters  not  what  man  can  do 
to  us." 

143 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


The  Arabs  long  continued  to  slander  the 
missionaries  in  this  way  whenever  it  was 
possible  to  do  so.  They  took  advantage  of 
the  occasions  when  the  missionaries  were 
not  at  court  to  make  false  charges  against 
them  before  the  king. 

One  morning  when  a  goodly  number  of 
them  were  present  at  baraza,  they  said, 
"The  English  are  taking  advantage  of  Mu- 
tesa's  illness.  Since  you  are  unable  to  go 
about  to  see  what  is  going  on  in  your  king- 
dom, the  English  are  building  a  castle  of 
clay  which  will  become  a  fort ;  and  they  have 
many  guns.  When  they  finish  building  they 
will  fight." 

Mutesa  answered:  "The  English  are  at 
Zanzibar  and  have  not  yet  taken  that  place. 
Is  it  likely  that  the}^  will  begin  fighting  here 
when  they  have  not  yet  'eaten'  any  part  of 
the  coast?" 

Failing  in  their  charge  against  the  Eng- 
lish, the  Arabs  next  attacked  the  French- 
men. "Mapera  has  many  guns,"  they  said, 
"and  has  bought  fifty  slaves  and  is  training 

144 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

them  to  fight.     Then  they  will  make  war." 

Mutesa  did  not  seem  inclined  to  believe 
this  charge  either,  and  said  that  he  knew 
that  Mapera  was  not  a  fighting  man.  "I 
accept  your  religion, ' '  he  said,  ' '  and  do  not 
want  the  religion  of  the  Bazungu  [white 
men].     Leave  off  then  abusing  them." 

Pleased  that  he  had  professed  to  accept 
their  faith,  the  Arabs  began  to  flatter  him 
because  of  his  wisdom. 

"The  Bazungu/'  they  said,  "do  not  know 
how  to  pray.  They  never  wash  their  hands 
before  eating.  They  keep  dogs  which  are 
unclean  animals.  Their  skin  is  white  be- 
cause they  eat  swine's  flesh.  We  eat  only 
clean  animals,  we  always  wash  before  eating 
and  before  praying,  and  we  pray  regularly 
four  and  five  times  a  day." 

Mutesa  again  praised  the  Mohammedan 
religion  and  commanded  all  his  chiefs  to  go 
immediately  and  pray  at  the  mosque  which 
had  been  put  up  on  the  palace  grounds. 

When  they  returned  Mutesa  asked: 
"Have  not  the  Bazungu  a  book  also  from 

145 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


which  they  pray?  Is  there  no  one  present 
who  can  repeat  their  prayers  for  me  to 
hear?" 

Mufta  being  present  was  asked  to  read. 
He  read  the  prayer  beginning,  "Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven." 

"There,"  cried  the  Arabs,  "what  is 
that?  Allah  is  not  our  Father,  and  who- 
ever saw  him  in  heaven?  Did  we  not  tell 
you  that  these  people  do  not  know  how  to 
pray?" 

The  king  then  decreed  that  all  should 
pray  as  the  Arabs  did,  and  that  every  one 
who  was  found  not  doing  so  should  be 
caught  and  killed. 

Later  another  discussion  arose  at  court 
about  the  religions  of  Christ  and  Moham- 
med. Mr.  O 'Flaherty,  who  had  taken  Mr. 
Pearson 's  place  in  the  mission,  took  the  side 
of  the  Christians. 

"In  what  does  the  wealth  of  Europe  and 
Zanzibar  consist?"  asked  Mutesa  of  one  of 
the  Arabs  present. 

The  Arab  mentioned  houses,  lands,  cattle, 
146 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

slaves,  ivory,  merchandise,  pearls,  gold,  and 
silver. 

"In  what  does  the  wealth  of  Uganda  con- 
sist?" asked  Mr.  O 'Flaherty  of  the  king. 

"Our  riches,"  said  Mutesa,  "lie  in  ivory 
and  women  and  cattle  and  slaves  and 
houses. ' ' 

Mr.  0 'Flaherty  replied,  "Ivory  will  by- 
and-by  be  all  gone;  your  women  die  every 
day  of  the  plague ;  your  cattle  get  eaten  up ; 
your  slaves  die;  and  your  houses,  why  I 
could  set  them  all  on  fire  with  one  match. 
What  will  you  have  then  %  All  these  things 
perish.  I,  therefore,  advise  you  to  seek  the 
true  riches  which  are  above,  and  which  can- 
not pass  away.  Seek  first  to  know  God  and 
to  love  him  with  all  your  heart,  and  then 
you  will  have  wealth  which  will  last  al- 
ways." 

"I  want  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  Jesus 
Christ,"  Mutesa  replied.  "I  want  goods 
and  women.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
will  not  give  these  to  me,  so  I  will  not  have 
it.     The  white  men  told  me  that  God  would 

147 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


protect  those  who  read  the  Book.  Smissi 
[Lieutenant  Smith]  was  a  man  who  read 
the  book  of  Jesus  Christ  and  he  was  killed. 
Does  not  Jesus  Christ  always  abuse  people  ? 
Did  he  not  try  to  make  the  Jews  accept  his 
religion?  But  they  would  not  have  it,  and 
killed  him  and  scattered  his  followers.  I 
don't  want  the  Bazungu  to  come  here  with 
empty  words.  I  want  them  to  work  and  to 
bring  me  goods  like  the  Arabs.  If  they  will 
not  make  me  ships  and  cannon,  I  do  not 
want  them.  They  tell  me  about  God. 
Who  ever  saw  God  1  Ask  the  Bazungu  who 
ever  saw  God." 

In  answer,  Mr.  O  'Flaherty  asked  Mutesa, 
1 '  Did  you  ever  see  pain  %  Yet  you  have  cer- 
tainly felt  it  and  know  what  it  is.  Did  you 
ever  see  the  wind?  Yet  you  know  it  is 
here  or  there." 

So  the  conversation  continued.  Mutesa 's 
heart  was  bad  and  the  missionaries  were 
able  to  do  little. 

A  few  days  later  the  Arabs  invented 
another  very  cunning  charge  against  the 

148 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

English  missionaries.  Several  of  them, 
having  called  on  the  white  men,  had  seen 
and  heard  their  new  mnsic-box.  So  at 
court  they  told  the  king  that  Queen  Vic- 
toria had  sent  him  a  fine  music-box,  but  that 
the  missionaries  were  keeping  it  for  them- 
selves. They  further  said  that  there  were 
devils  inside  the  box  and  when  Mr.  O  'Flah- 
erty whistled  the  devils  began  to  play  and 
when  Mr.  O 'Flaherty  said  "stop,"  they 
were  quiet.  They  also  said  that  the  Queen 
had  sent  Mutesa  a  thousand  rifles,  which 
they  were  also  keeping  for  their  own  use. 
A  hundred  bales  of  cloth  and  many  other 
things  the  Arabs  said  the  missionaries  were 
withholding  from  Mutesa.  Of  course,  it 
was  soon  shown  how  false  were  all  these 
charges. 

After  a  long  discussion  about  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Arabs  broke  out  with  a  new  at- 
tack. "The  Bazungu  are  idolaters,  they 
worship  pictures." 

Mutesa  ordered  a  book  brought  which 
had  been  given  him  by  the  French  Catholic 

149 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


priests.  It  contained  a  picture  of  God,  the 
Father,  as  an  old  man  with  a  long  beard. 
The  Arabs  were  delighted  to  have  their 
charge  seemingly  proved  true. 

But  the  missionary  was  ready  with  a  re- 
ply. "That  is  not  really  a  picture  of  God," 
he  said.  "That  picture  has  been  made  to 
help  children  to  understand  that  God  is  our 
Father.  But,  you  know  that  the  French- 
men and  we  do  not  agree  on  such  things: 
we  have  the  same  faith  in  important  mat- 
ters, but  pictures  we  don't  believe  in  as 
they  do." 

The  evil  stories  invented  by  the  Arabs 
were  sometimes  so  bad  that  they  sound  ri- 
diculous. Mr.  Mackay  seemed  to  be  more 
fiercely  slandered  than  any  of  the  rest. 
The  Arabs  even  made  up  this  very  queer 
fable,  which  they  tried  to  use  to  Mr. 
Mackay 's  harm: 

"A  certain  king,"  they  said,  "had  a  fav- 
orite cat,  which  was  reported  to  have  one 
day  eaten  all  the  eggs.  The  king,  however, 
said, '  It  is  my  cat,  let  it  alone ;  it  must  eat. ' 

150 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

Next  day  it  was  reported  to  have  eaten  the 
hens.  'Let  it  alone,'  said  the  king,  'it  is 
my  favorite  cat ;  it  must  eat. '  After  this  it 
ate  the  goats,  and  then  all  the  cows;  but 
still  the  king  would  not  let  the  cat  be 
touched.  Next  it  ate  up  all  the  people,  and 
the  king 's  wives,  and  then  his  children,  and 
finally  it  ate  up  the  king  himself.  Only  one 
son  of  the  king  escaped  by  hiding  himself. 
Meantime  the  cat  grew  and  swelled  to  a 
great  size,  from  having  devoured  so  many 
things. 

"But  at  length  the  one  prince  who  es- 
caped, succeeded  in  killing  the  cat.  When 
he  cut  it  open,  he  found  all  the  eggs  and 
the  fowls  and  the  goats  and  the  cows  and 
the  people  and  the  wives  and  the  king's 
sons.  But  in  the  act  of  cutting  the  cat  up, 
the  prince  accidentally  wounded  in  the  thigh 
one  of  his  brother  princes  inside  the  cat. 
This  fellow  got  out  and  said,  'What  did  you 
wound  me  for?'  'Bo  you  not  see,'  said  the 
other,  'that  I  have  been  doing  you  a  good 
service  in  letting  you  out  % '    But  he  refused 

151 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


to  be  at  peace,  and  tried  to  kill  the  prince 
who  had  let  him  out!" 

"The  wonderful  cat  is  the  English,"  said 
the  Arabs,  "and  the  wounded  prince  who 
wished  to  kill  his  deliverer  is  Mackay. 
You,  Mutesa,  have  conferred  every  benefit 
on  him5  but  he  means  only  to  return  you 
evil  for  good ! ' ' 

"Could  enmity  and  falsehood  go  fur- 
ther % ' '  wrote  Mackay  in  his  j  ournal.  ' '  But 
none  of  these  things  move  me.  The  Lord 
has  preserved  me  many  a  time  from  the 
hatred  of  these  revilers  and  wicked  men, 
who,  for  no  reason  at  all,  delight  so  to  speak 
all  manner  of  evil  against  me  falsely.  It 
was  this  very  morning  that  Pearson  and  I 
read  together  at  prayers  the  fifty-first  chap- 
ter of  Isaiah : 

"  'I,  even,  I,  am  he  that  comforteth  you: 
who  art  thou,  that  thou  shouldest  be  afraid 
of  a  man  that  shall  die,  and  of  the  son  of 
man  which  shall  be  made  as  grass ;  and  f or- 
gettest  the  Lord  thy  maker,  that  hath 
stretched  forth  the  heavens,  and  laid  the 

152 


MUTESA  AND  MOHAMMEDANS 

foundations  of  the  earth;  and  hast  feared 
continually  every  day  because  of  the  fury  of 
the  oppressor,  as  if  he  were  ready  to  de- 
stroy? and  where  is  the  fury  of  the  op- 
pressor? The  captive  exile  hasten eth  that 
he  may  be  loosed,  and  that  he  should  not  die 
in  the  pit,  nor  that  his  bread  should  fail. 
But  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  that  divided  the 
sea,  whose  waves  roared:  the  Lord  of  hosts 
is  his  name.  And  I  have  put  my  words  in 
thy  mouth,  and  I  have  covered  thee  in  the 
shadow  of  mine  hand. ' 

"With  such  a  promise,  and  such  a  ref- 
uge, and  such  a  God,  who  shall  be  afraid? 
Lord  God,  give  us  more  faith  in  thee!  As 
for  these  Mohammedans  and  all  others  who 
speak  so  falsely  of  us,  we  would  have  no 
bitter  feelings  in  our  hearts  against  them. 
Lord,  have  mercy  on  them,  and  lead  them  to 
know  thee,  and  then  they  will  love  thee  and 
love  thy  servants." 

Such  a  one,  whose  desire  was  best  ex- 
pressed in  a  prayer  for  his  enemies,  was  a 
true  Christian,  for  he  was  like  his  Master. 

153 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  NEW  TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

OCTOBER  the  eighth,  eighteen  hundred 
and  eighty-one,  was  a  great  day  for 
the  two  English  missionaries  in  Uganda. 
Mr.  Litchfield  and  Mr.  Pearson,  having  been 
compelled  to  return  to  their  homeland,  Mr. 
Mackay  and  Mr.  O 'Flaherty  were  alone  at 
the  time  in  the  mission.  The  day  brought 
nothing  unusual  but  a  letter  addressed  to 
Mr.  Mackay. 

The  letter  was  short — very  short — as  it 
contained  but  two  sentences.  It  was  not 
beautifully  written,  for  the  writer  had  never 
had  a  lesson  in  penmanship.  The  pen  used 
was  a  pointed  piece  of  spear  grass  and  the 
ink  had  been  made  from  pot  soot  and  plan- 
tain juice.  None  of  us  could  have  read  it, 
for   it    was    written    in    Luganda,    yet    it 

154 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

brought  Mr.  Mackay  the  best  news  he  had 
heard  since  reaching  Uganda.  During  all 
the  three  years  he  had  spent  in  Mutesa's 
kingdom,  not  a  single  black  man  or  woman 
in  the  country,  as  far  as  he  knew,  had 
showed  that  he  truly  wanted  to  be  a  Chris- 
tian. This  little  letter  bringing  the  good 
news  was  from  one  of  Mackay 's  first  pupils, 
a  young  man  named  Sembera. 

"Bwana  [Master]  Mackay,"  it  read, 
"  Sembera  has  come  with  compliments  and 
to  give  you  the  great  news.  "Will  you  bap- 
tize him,  because  he  believes  the  words  of 
Jesus  Christ?" 

Never  afterwards  was  Sembera  ashamed 
of  being  a  Christian.  Day  by  day,  he  lived 
the  sort  of  life  which  convinced  every  one 
that  he  was  "true  blue."  Although  only  a 
slave  boy,  he  was  ever  trying  to  persuade 
others  to  become  Christians.  Two  years 
after  his  baptism  two  young  men  whom  he 
himself  had  won  boldly  acknowledged  Jesus 
as  Lord  and  Saviour;  and  even  his  old 
slave  master  became  a  Christian  later,  be- 

155 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


cause  Sembera  his  slave  boy  had  taught  him 
of  Jesus. 

About  a  month  after  Sembera 's  note  came, 
another  bit  of  important  news  reached  the 
missionaries.  A  lame  slave  boy,  named  Dum- 
ulira,  one  of  Mr.  O 'Flaherty's  advanced 
pupils,  was  missed  for  some  time  from  the 
daily  reading  class,  and  the  missionaries  did 
not  know  what  the  trouble  could  be.  Later, 
when  Mr.  O  'Flaherty  was  waiting  in  one  of 
the  courtyards  of  the  palace,  a  lad  stepped 
up  and  handed  to  him  a  Gospel,  saying  that 
Dumulira  had  asked  that  it  be  returned  to 
the  white  man.  His  friend  Dumulira,  he 
said,  was  dead.  He  himself  used  to  be  a 
follower  of  the  wizards,  but  now  he  no 
longer  believed  his  old  superstitions.  To 
prove  that  he  was  honest,  he  showed  Mr. 
O 'Flaherty  that  he  no  longer  carried  any 
charm  about  his  clothes. 

The  change  in  the  heathen  lad  had  come 
about  at  a  time  when  hundreds  of  Waganda 
were  dying  of  the  plague.  While  Dumulira 
was  sick,  he  asked  his  heathen  friend  to  go 

1561 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

to  the  missionaries  for  medicine;  but  the 
heathen  lad  was  afraid  and  would  not  go. 
All  day  long,  the  sick  boy  read  from  the 
Gospel  of  Mark,  until  his  pains  grew  too  in- 
tense to  read  longer,  and  soon  afterward  he 
died. 

That  day  the  heathen  lad  lost  his  faith  in 
the  evil  spirits  worshiped  by  the  Waganda. 
Soon  he,  too,  was  one  of  the  "readers"  at 
the  missionaries '  school  and  was  taught 
more  about  the  Christ  who  had  made  his 
friend's  death-bed  so  sweet. 

About  five  months  after  Sembera's  letter 
was  received,  the  first  five  Christian  Wa- 
ganda then  living  were  baptized  by  Mr. 
O  'Flaherty.  For  this  special  service  the 
missionaries '  home  was  turned  into  a 
chapel.  After  the  solemn  and  impressive 
ceremony  of  the  morning  was  over,  a  boun- 
teous dinner  was  served  to  about  thirty  lads 
and  men  and  a  goodly  number  of  women  be- 
sides, Mr.  Mackay  being  the  chief  cook  for 
the  occasion.  It  was  a  very  happy  as  well 
as  a  solemn  day;  and  others,  too,  began  to 

157 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


think  seriously  of  coming  out  boldly  for 
Christ. 

The  five  young  men  who  were  baptized 
had  all  been  pupils  in  the  white  men's 
school  for  a  long  time,  and  had  repeatedly 
expressed  their  determination  to  be  follow- 
ers of  Jesus.  To  make  every  one  feel  that 
these  young  men  were  beginning  a  new  life, 
they  were  given  new  names  when  baptized. 
Sembera  was  now  called  Sembera  Mackay. 
Two  of  them  had  formerly  been  known  by 
the  name  of  the  old  wizard  of  the  lake,  Mu- 
kasa.  One  was  now  called  Philipo  for  Mr. 
O 'Flaherty,  who  was  called  Philipo  by  the 
black  men;  and  the  other  was  named  Ed- 
wardo.  The  fourth  was  called  Henry 
Wright,  for  one  of  the  missionary  secre- 
taries in  England ;  and  the  fifth  was  named 
Yakobo,  meaning  Jacob. 

From  this  time  on,  the  number  of  those 
who  were  earnestly  seeking  to  learn  how  to 
follow  the  white  man's  religion  steadily  in- 
creased. Some  walked  three,  four,  and  five 
hours    to    reach    the    missionaries'    home. 

158 


The  Chief  Teaching   His  Wives'' 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

One  faithful  chief  was  obliged  to  wade 
through  a  swamp  up  to  his  waist  in  going 
from  his  home  to  that  of  the  missionaries. 

One  day  a  chief  came  who  said  he  had 
heard  one  morning  at  haraza  the  discus- 
sions between  Mr.  O  'Flaherty,  the  king,  and 
the  Arabs ;  and  he  wanted  now  to  hear  more 
of  what  the  white  man  had  to  say.  Mr. 
O 'Flaherty  gave  the  chief  his  evenings, 
teaching  him  to  read  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Creed,  part  of  the  New  Testament,  and  cer- 
tain other  Scripture  verses.  Occasionally 
he  went  to  the  chief's  home  to  teach  him. 
Calling  one  day  at  his  hut,  he  was  happily 
surprised  to  find  the  chief  teaching  his 
women  or  wives,  some  to  say  the  alphabet, 
some  to  spell,  and  some  to  read  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

One  morning,  the  man  who  had  been  the 
special  wizard  or  priest  for  this  chief  came 
also  to  the  missionaries'  home.  Many  regu- 
lar pupils  and  visitors,  together  with  other 
wizards  and  worshipers  of  the  spirits,  were 
present.    In  the  midst  of  the  teaching,  this 

159 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


priest  arose  and  knelt  at  the  feet  of  Mr. 
O  'Flaherty. 

"I  will  cast  off  these  charms  of  the 
spirits,  whom  I  will  never  again  serve,"  he 
cried.  "They  are  liars  and  cheats.  I  will 
follow  Jesus  and  learn  his  ways."  On  say- 
ing this,  he  cut  off  the  valuable  charms  he 
carried  about  his  person  and  took  off  his 
priest's  robes  and  threw  them  all  into  the 
fire. 

Soon  after  this  the  chief  was  ordered  by 
the  king  to  go  to  a  distant  part  of  the  coun- 
try. Having  been  away  some  months,  he 
sent  his  converted  priest  back  to  the  mis- 
sion house,  several  days'  journey,  to  ask  for 
a  prayer-book.  It  happened  that  when  he 
arrived,  another  priest,  richly  robed  and 
adorned  with  charms,  was  talking  with  Mr. 
Mackay.  The  heathen  priest  was  describ- 
ing his  different  kinds  of  charms;  one  he 
had  to  keep  off  lightning;  one  was  to  heal 
snake  bites ;  and  others  were  to  heal  various 
kinds  of  sicknesses.  Mr.  Mackay  finally 
persuaded  the  man  to  allow  him  for  a  few 

160 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

minutes  to  have  one  of  his  most  precious 
charms  which  he  carried  on  his  head.  On 
handing  it  over  to  the  missionary  the  wiz- 
ard cautioned  Mr.  Mackay  not  to  place  it 
on  his  head  lest  some  dreadful  calamity 
should  be  sent  upon  him  by  the  god.  This 
was  the  very  thing  Mr.  Mackay  did,  at  the 
same  time  addressing  the  crowd  of  Wa- 
ganda.  Expecting  to  see  Mackay  smitten 
dead  on  the  spot,  some  of  the  people  were  so 
frightened  that  they  ran  away.  The  wizard 
himself  seemed  interested  and  convinced  of 
the  folly  of  his  belief. 

Then  the  converted  wizard  stepping  for- 
ward boldly  addressed  the  people.  He  told 
them  how  he  had  thrown  all  his  charms  and 
his  priestly  robes  into  the  fire;  for  he  had 
been  led  to  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Great  High  Priest  of  the  true  God. 
Those  present  were  deeply  moved,  and 
many  went  away  asking  themselves,  "Is 
not  the  Christian's  God  the  true  God?" 

These  interesting  and  encouraging  things 
were  happening  while  the  Waganda  every- 

161 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


where  were  living  in  constant  fear  of  death. 
The  land  was  sorely  stricken  with  the 
plague,  much  as  Egypt  was  in  the  days  of 
Moses.  When  this  was  at  its  worst,  it 
seemed  as  though  there  was  not  a  single 
house  in  Uganda  where  at  least  one  had  not 
died. 

The  disease  snatched  several  from  the 
noble  Christian  band.  Two  of  these  vic- 
tims, young  men  of  the  king's  household, 
were  expecting  to  be  baptized  in  a  few 
months.  When  smitten  with  the  plague, 
however,  they  were  treated  as  were  all 
others  and  carried  off  into  the  jungle  and 
left  to  die.  Some  friend,  learning  of  this, 
wrote  a  note  to  Mr.  O  'Flaherty,  which 
read:  "Hasten  to  such  a  place  in  Rubaga 
and  bring  with  you  some  medicine,  for  your 
two  friends  are  beinsr  carried  awav  thither 
smitten  with  the  plague. ' ' 

Mr.  O 'Flaherty  hastened  to  them,  and 
found  them  alone  in  the  deserted  place ;  for 
those  who  had  borne  them  to  the  jungle 
were  afraid  of  being  seized  with  the  dread 

162 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

disease.  There  were  a  few  words  of  cheer 
and  a  short  prayer  by  the  missionary.  "I 
shall  never  forget,"  wrote  Mr.  O 'Flaherty, 
"the  look  up  to  heaven  by  the  first  young 
man,  Mukasa,  and  the  words,  among  many 
others,  to  the  effect  that,  although  he  was 
leaving  an  earthly  palace,  he  was  going  to 
the  palace  in  heaven;  and  turning  to  his 
friend  he  said,  'Jesus  our  Saviour  is  King.' 
His  hands  were  clasped  in  mine,  but  in  a 
paroxysm  of  burning  agony  he  released  his 
grasp  and  passed  away.  Turning  to  my 
other  friend,  I  found  him  already  in  the 
throes  of  death,  but  I  felt  his  name  was  en- 
tered on  the  Book  of  Life  in  heaven." 

Another  victim  of  the  plague  was  Philipo 
Mnkasa,  one  of  the  first  live  baptized  by  the 
missionary.  For  a  long  time  he  had  been 
Mr.  O 'Flaherty's  personal  friend  and 
helper.  In  the  religious  services  he  became 
the  leader  in  the  singing  and  in  the  respon- 
sive Bible  reading,  and  in  the  school  he  was 
made  one  of  the  regular  teachers.  Once 
shortly    after   his    baptism,    he    weakened 

163 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


under  the  tempting  offer  of  his  brother,  a 
chief,  who  promised  him  a  wife,  the  Afri- 
can's great  desire,  if  Philipo  Mukasa  would 
only  become  his  heathen  priest.  However, 
with  his  wife  Sarah  he  soon  returned  to  the 
missionaries,  asking  that  both  might  be  per- 
mitted to  remain  with  them. 

At  all  other  times  Philipo  was  true  to  his 
God.  Even  before  he  was  baptized  he  had 
suffered  persecution  for  the  Bazungu's 
[white  men's]  religion.  It  was  when  Mu- 
tesa,  because  of  his  dream,  had  turned  his 
court  into  a  Mohammedan  assembly.  At 
the  time  Philipo  Mukasa  was  the  janitor  of 
the  church  within  the  palace  enclosure  where 
the  chiefs  began  to  go  regularly  to  repeat 
Mohammedan  prayers.  Philipo  Mukasa  re- 
fused to  join  them,  and  said  that  the  religion 
of  Jesus  which  the  white  men  taught  was  the 
only  true  religion.  When  his  words  were 
reported  to  the  king,  the  brave  young  man 
was  put  in  the  stocks ;  and  shortly  after  he 
with  another  of  the  missionaries '  pupils  was 
sent  off  bound  into  the  country. 

164 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

On  another  occasion,  after  Philipo's  re- 
turn, Mr.  O 'Flaherty  was  too  ill  to  attend 
court.  The  missionaries  were  being  slan- 
dered by  their  enemies  who  said  that  they 
were  bribing  people  to  get  them  to  come  to 
read,  and  that  they  were  running  away  with 
the  palace  women.  The  king  ordered  every 
pupil  found  about  the  premises  to  be 
caught,  when  Philipo  Mukasa  came  heroic- 
ally to  their  rescue.  He  pleaded  the  mis- 
sionaries' cause  so  ably  at  court  that,  in- 
stead of  being  murdered  for  his  boldness  as 
he  expected,  the  king  and  katikiro  each 
gave  him  a  present  of  cloth. 

Philipo 's  wife,  Sarah,  grew  to  be  as  noble 
a  Christian  as  himself.  When  first  brought 
to  the  missionaries'  home,  she  was  a 
haughty  savage  who  refused  to  touch  the 
white  men's  food.  "Can  a  woman  learn1?" 
she  asked,  when  they  tried  to  teach  her. 
Soon  however  she  became  a  good  reader  and, 
more  than  that,  a  most  helpful  person  about 
the  place.  One  day  she  was  seen  working  in 
the  garden  with  the  other  women. 

165 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


" Sarah, "  asked  the  missionary,  "who 
told  you  to  work ;  I  thought  you  were  above 
working  % ' ' 

"I  cannot  wash  and  sew  like  my  white 
sisters  in  England,"  she  answered.  "I 
wish  I  could ;  but  I  can  prune  and  hoe,  and 
the  plantains  which  feed  us  require  both. 
It  is  my  duty  to  assist  in  feeding  this  great 
family." 

It  was  a  sad  night  for  her  and  all  the 
Christians  when  Philipo  Mukasa  was  smit- 
ten with  the  plague  and  died.  His  brothers 
came  to  take  away  the  corpse,  but  the  mis- 
sionary and  Sarah  refused,  saying  that  be- 
cause they  were  Christians  and  Jesus  was 
their  elder  brother,  they  were  more  closely 
related  to  Philipo  Mukasa  than  his  natural 
brothers.  When  his  heathen  relatives  saw 
the  fine  grave  the  white  men  made  and  the 
beautiful  bark  cloth  and  the  clean  white 
linen  in  which  they  wrapped  the  dead  body, 
they  said:  "You  have  buried  him  a  chief; 
we  also  wish  to  be  your  brothers." 

During  the  larger  part  of  the  year  1883, 
166 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

Mr.  Mackay  was  absent  from  Rubaga.  He 
was  trying  to  fit  up  a  second  vessel  to  take 
the  place  of  the  steam  launch  they  had  for- 
merly used  on  Victoria  Lake.  His  heart, 
however,  was  very  much  in  Uganda,  and  he 
greatly  wished  to  see  these  young  Chris- 
tians baptized  and  to  help  to  train  them  for 
larger  usefulness. 

One  interesting  young  man,  Mwira  by 
name,  who  came  while  Mr.  Mackay  was 
away,  asked  permission  to  stay  with  the  mis- 
sionaries. During  the  da}^,  he  worked  for 
hours  in  the  garden  side  by  side  with  Mr. 
O 'Flaherty;  and  at  night,  he  had  scores  of 
questions  to  ask  as  the  missionary  tried  to 
teach  him  of  Christ.  On  returning  to  his 
home  he  was  given  some  Christian  books. 
After  several  months'  absence  he  returned 
with  his  wife  and  babe,  asking  that  his  wife, 
too,  might  be  taught  to  read.  She  had  been 
with  the  missionaries  only  a  day  or  two 
when  she  went  to  Mr.  O  'Flaherty  to  ask  for 
a  hoe  that  she  might  go  and  work  in  the 
garden  and  help  to  earn  her  own  bread. 

167 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


The  missionary  objected,  saying:  "Stay 
and  learn,  you  are  my  guest;  I'll  feed  you." 

"How  can  I  while  you  labor,"  she  an- 
swered. "No,  you  stay  with  us,  and  teach 
us,  and  we  will  go  and  cultivate. ' ' 

Unlike  most  Waganda  husbands  and 
wives  Mwira  and  his  wife  loved  each  other. 
When  baptized  they  chose  for  themselves 
the  names  Yohana  (John)  and  Maryamu 
(Mary),  from  the  two  Bible  characters  they 
especially  respected. 

Before  Mwira  finally  said  good-by  to  the 
missionaries,  he  attempted  to  describe  how 
he  felt  as  a  Christian  man.  This  is  about 
what  he  said. 

"I  am  like  a  man  traveling  in  a  moun- 
tainous country.  He  climbs  and  passes 
ridge  after  ridge  with  pleasure.  But  as  he 
surmounts  each  he  looks  before  him  to  the 
heights  beyond,  each  one  loftier  than  those 
he  has  passed,  and  he  becomes  impatient, 
and  wonders  to  himself  if  he  will  ever  sur- 
mount the  last.  But  there  is  one  great  dif- 
ference.    The  traveler  in  his  desire  hastens 

168 


TEACHING  MAKES  NEW  MEN 

from  the  summit  of  one  ridge  to  descend, 
that  he  may  climb  another  height;  thence 
he  hastens  on  till  he  climbs  the  last  and 
highest.  Not  so  I.  When  I  climb  I  like 
to  lie  on  the  top  and  rest,  and  enjoj^  the 
others  before  me.  Yes,  I  like  to  rest,  and 
drink  of  the  fountains  that  gush  forth  as 
I  climb.  Oh,  the  pleasure  of  reading  and 
thinking  upon  these  delightful  books,  and 
of  meditating  on  the  wonders  of  the  Son  of 
God  becoming  man  to  save  men  from  evil 
spirits ! ' ' 

So  the  number  of  Waganda  Christians 
grew.  Some  were  slaves,  some  were  chiefs, 
some  were  officers  of  the  king's  household, 
and  several  were  the  king's  own  daughters. 
By  October,  1884,  eighty-eight  Waganda 
had  been  baptized.  Black  men,  women, 
and  children  were  being  born  again  with 
new  hearts  pure  and  white. 


169 


CHAPTER  IX. 

mackay's  queer  new  name 

1\/TR.  MACKAY  was  not  an  ordained 
-M-*-  minister  of  the  gospel,  but  a  mechanic. 
His  best  sermons  were  preached  by  the 
things  he  made  with  his  hands.  His  sun- 
burned face  told  of  the  hours  spent  out  of 
doors  as  farmer,  carpenter,  or  bridge- 
builder,  and  his  hands  were  blackened  and 
hardened  by  the  heavy  labor  which  was  al- 
most continually  his.  Many  a  time  he 
longed  for  more  spare  hours  in  which  the 
bright  lads  who  came  to  the  mission  might 
be  taught  to  read  the  Bible.  At  nights  and 
in  the  evenings  when  out-door  work  was  im- 
possible, he  would  turn  into  schoolmaster, 
or  printer,  or,  with  the  help  of  some  Wa- 
ganda  boys,  he  would  make  an  attempt  at 
translating  parts  of  the  Bible  into  Luganda. 

170 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


He  wrote:  "Any  amount  of  mere 
preaching  would  never  set  these  lazy  fel- 
lows to  work;  and  if  only  the  slaves  work, 
what  better  are  matters  than  before'?  I 
have  made  work  so  prominent  a  part  of  my 
teaching  that  I  am  called  Muzungu-wa  Kazi 
[white  man  of  work].  I  tell  them  that  God 
made  men  with  only  one  stomach,  but  with 
two  hands,  implying  they  should  work  twice 
as  much  as  they  eat.  But  most  of  them  are 
all  stomach  and  no  hands!  That  I  work 
with  my  hands  is  a  great  marvel,  and 
should  be  a  healthful  lesson." 

During  the  year  1881  there  was  more 
than  the  usual  amount  of  work  to  keep  the 
hands  of  Mr.  O 'Flaherty  and  Mr.  Mackay 
busy.  Indeed  the  " white  man  of  work" 
seldom  could  spare  time  to  attend  the  royal 
baraza.  Mr.  O 'Flaherty,  being  preacher, 
was  the  one  who  carried  on  the  greater 
number  of  the  discussions  with  the  king  and 
his  chiefs  at  court. 

Just  now  a  good  sized  farm  of  perhaps 
twenty  acres  was  at   the   disposal  of  the 

171 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


missionaries — ten  times  as  much  as  the  king 
had  given  them  at  first.  To  raise  for  them- 
selves all  the  vegetables,  fruit,  and  stock 
they  might  need  for  food  became  their  am- 
bition. Thus  they  would  no  longer  be  de- 
pendent upon  the  favor  of  a  fickle  king  for 
gifts  of  food  and  for  cowry-shells  to  keep 
them  from  starvation. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  cut  down  the  trees 
and  underbrush  and  to  break  up  the  soil,  so 
as  to  prepare  these  acres  of  wild  land  for 
cultivation.  The  natives  never  having  been 
used  to  the  idea  of  working  for  wages,  all 
manual  work  being  done  by  slaves,  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  get  men  and  women  to  help  in  this 
undertaking.  At  first  the  blacks  would  only 
beg  and  steal  from  the  white  men,  whether 
any  work  had  been  done  or  not.  Finally, 
the  white  men  succeeded  in  getting  a  few 
helpers  to  agree  to  finish  a  certain  piece  of 
work  for  definite  wages.  Some  would  work 
a  week  for  the  payment  of  a  very  small 
quantity  of  cloth.  Women,  who  in  Uganda 
do  all  the  gardening,  came  to  hoe  and  prune 

172 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


the  plantain  trees  for  a  few  cowry-shells, 
while  half  grown  lads  sometimes  consented 
for  pay  to  do  this  woman 's  work. 

After  months  of  patient  labor,  fifteen 
hundred  plantain  trees  were  growing  on  the 
land.  Splendid  crops  of  maize,  millet, 
wheat,  beans,  peas,  tomatoes,  and  sweet  po- 
tatoes were  being  gathered.  There  was  a 
fair  herd  of  cattle,  together  with  goats  and 
chickens — enough  to  supply  them  with 
meat.  Part  of  the  coffee  they  used  was 
raised  on  their  own  trees,  and  the  cotton 
they  wove  into  cloth  was  of  their  own  plant- 
ing. From  their  own  wheat  crops  they 
made  flour  and  baked  bread  in  a  brick  oven 
devised  by  Mr.  Mackay.  Plantain  rinds 
were  burned  to  make  lye  for  soap-making. 
They  even  went  so  far  as  to  make  sugar  and 
molasses  from  Uganda  sugar-cane.  All 
these  new  forms  of  labor  the  missionaries 
did  themselves  or  taught  the  natives  by  pa- 
tient example. 

To  all  the  tasks  of  various  kinds  involved 
in  farming  was  added  that  of  building  a 

173 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


new  home  for  the  missionaries.  Hitherto 
they  had  lived  in  a  hut  of  native  build. 
Oftentimes  the  rain  would  drip  through  the 
grass  roof,  and  on  the  moist  mud  floors 
weeds  and  grass  would  insist  on  growing. 
The  lower  parts  of  the  walls,  being  shaded 
by  the  roof  and  soaked  by  the  rains,  soon 
rotted.  Because  such  conditions  were  so 
unhealthful,  Mr.  Mackay  determined  to 
build  the  best  sort  of  house  he  could  with  the 
materials  at  his  disposal. 

Because  of  the  rumors  spread  by  the 
Arabs  that  brick  houses  would  be  used  as 
forts,  he  did  not  dare  build  of  that  material. 
So  the  frame  he  made  of  wild  palm,  the  only 
wood  in  Uganda  which  can  resist  the  rav- 
ages of  the  white  ants.  Between  the  beams, 
the  walls  were  filled  in  with  stones  and  red 
clay  and  plastered  over,  both  inside  and  out- 
side, with  plaster.  To  protect  these  walls 
from  rain,  the  heavily  thatched  roof  was 
made  to  extend  some  feet  beyond  them  and 
was  supported  by  substantial  pillars.  The 
two  stories  within  and  the  stairway  con- 

174 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


necting  them  seemed  most  marvelous  to  the 
ignorant  Wagauda,  who  had  never  before 
seen  one  house  built  on  top  of  another. 
The  wooden  floor  and  the  lattice-work  for 
windows  did  much  toward  making  the  house 
comfortable  and  wholesome  as  a  home  for 
the  white  men. 

With  all  the  delays  caused  by  inefficient 
and  lazy  workmen,  by  Mr.  Mackay's  occa- 
sional attacks  of  fever,  and  by  the  dozen 
and  one  other  hindrances  that  may  not  be 
named,  a  full  year  passed  before  the  new 
home  was  completed.  The  fame  of  this 
wonderful  house  and  farm  spread  even  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  Uganda,  and  here  and 
there  some  enterprising  man  began  to  copy 
this  or  that  improvement  suggested  by  the 
white  man's  way  of  living. 

For  three  years  the  missionaries  had  been 
drinking  the  same  kind  of  water  as  was  used 
by  the  natives.  Not  a  well  or  a  pump  had 
ever  been  seen  in  the  land.  The  water 
which  naturally  drained  into  the  hollow 
swamps   between   the   hills,   carrying  filth 

175 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


with  it,  was  the  only  supply  the  Waganda 
knew.  After  a  fearful  plague  had  swept 
over  the  land  and  the  white  men  themselves 
had  been  weakened  by  repeated  attacks  of 
fever,  they  realized  the  urgent  need  for  a 
well  of  their  own  where  they  could  find  pure 
fresh  water.  They  decided  to  dig  a  well 
within  their  own  premises.  The  men  who 
were  set  to  work  with  pick  and  shovel  could 
not  believe  that  water  could  be  found  by  dig- 
ging into  the  top  of  a  hill.  Water  could  be 
found  only  at  the  bottom,  they  said. 

"When  we  got  too  far  down  to  throw  up 
the  earth  with  a  shovel,"  says  Mr.  Mackay, 
"I  set  up  a  trestle  of  strong  trees;  and  with 
rope  and  pulley  and  bucket,  much  to  the  as- 
tonishment of  all  the  natives,  we  hoisted  up 
the  clay,  till  we  reached  water  just  at  the 
depth  I  predicted.  The  Waganda  never 
saw  a  deep  well  before,  and  would  not  be- 
lieve that  water  could  be  had  on  a  hillside 
until  they  saw  the  liquid  itself.  It  took 
more  than  a  week  to  sink  the  well ;  but  when 
I   afterwards    repaired    a   battered   pump 

176 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


which  I  bought  in  London,  and  they  saw  a 
copious  stream  ascend  twenty  feet  high,  and 
flow  and  flow,  as  long  as  one  worked  the 
handle,  their  wonder  and  amazement  knew 
no  bounds. 

"Mahay  lubare!  Mahay  lubare  data!" 
was  cried  by  all.  [Mackay  is  the  great 
spirit,  he  is  truly  the  great  spirit.]  But  I 
told  them  that  there  was  only  one  great 
Spirit,  that  is,  God,  and  I  was  only  a  man 
like  themselves.  To  each  company  that 
came  near  I  explained  the  action  of  the 
pump,  some  understanding  best  when  I  said 
that  it  was  only  a  sort  of  elephant's  trunk 
made  of  copper.  To  others  I  explained 
that  it  was  only  a  beer-drinking  tube  on  a 
large  scale,  with  a  tongue  of  iron  that 
sucked  up  the  water,  as  their  tongues 
sucked  up  the  beer  from  their  gourds. 

"Oh,  the  Bazungu,  the  Bazungu!  they  are 
the  men ;  they  can  do  everything ;  the  Arabs 
and  coast  men  know  nothing  at  all ;  they  can 
only  draw  water  in  the  swamp  where  we  get 
it   ourselves;   but,   oh,   eh,   eh,  Mackay  is 

177 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 

clever,  clever;  the  king  will  get  them  to 
cany  him  to  see  this  wonderful  thing." 

Very  seldom  was  the  "white  man  of 
work"  unwelcome  at  court  when  he  had 
time  to  go.  Because  of  the  wonderful 
things  he  made  he  became  very  popular 
with  the  king.  One  day  he  brought  to  the 
court  a  diamond  and  showed  the  king  how 
glass  is  cut.  He  also  exhibited  a  yoke  and 
explained  how  oxen  are  harnessed  so  that 
they  may  be  used  for  drawing  loads. 

"There  must  remain  nothing  for  white 
men  to  know — they  know  everything!"  said 
Mutesa  in  his  astonishment. 

"We  know  yet  only  the  beginning  of 
things.  Every  year  we  make  advances  in 
knowledge,"  Mackay  replied. 

"Can  Waganda  ever  become  clever  like 
the  BaziinguV 

"Yes,  and  yet  even  more  clever." 

The  king  laughed  and  said;  "I  don't  be- 
lieve it."  Of  course,  the  chiefs  laughed  too, 
as  they  always  did  whenever  the  king 
laughed. 

173 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


"Is  it  not  the  case,"  asked  Mackay,  "that 
the  scholar  usually  becomes  wiser  than  his 
teacher?  The  skill  of  the  Bazungu  to-day 
is  much  greater  than  their  skill  a  year  ago, 
while  to-morrow  they  will  improve  on  the 
wisdom  of  to-day.  The  pupil  stands  on  the 
shoulders  of  him  that  taught  him.  He  sees 
all  that  his  master  sees,  and  a  great  deal 
farther  too."  All  seemed  delighted  with 
the  idea.  A  few  moments  later,  when 
court  was  dismissed,  many  of  the  chiefs 
heartily  shook  hands  with  Mr.  Mackay. 

The  fame  of  the  "white  man  of  work" 
reached  its  climax  when  he  successfully 
served  as  undertaker  for  the  king's  mother, 
Namasole.  While  she  wras  ill  with  fever, 
she  refused  to  take  any  of  the  white  man's 
medicine,  nor  would  she  allow  any  one  near 
her  wearing  calico  or  anything  foreign,  so 
wedded  was  she  to  her  old  heathen  ways. 
The  native  witch  doctors  brought  their 
charms  to  her  bedside  and  chanted  their 
prayers  over  her,  but  she  only  grew  worse. 

When  she  died,  the  drums  at  the  palace 
179 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


were  loudly  beaten  to  frighten  away  the 
'  'king  of  terrors"  who,  they  feared,  might 
escort  her  departed  spirit  into  the  unseen 
world.  In  Uganda,  only  the  souls  of  kings 
and  great  men  and  women  were  supposed  to 
live  after  death.  Special  care  was  there- 
fore taken  at  royal  burials  to  give  the  dead 
due  honor;  for  their  spirits  were  supposed 
to  enter  into  certain  persons  who  then  be- 
came witches  and  had  the  power,  if  angry, 
to  do  great  evil  to  men.  The  story  of  the 
coffin  and  the  sermon  he  preached  through 
its  making,  the  "white  man  of  work"  him- 
self will  tell. 

"The  royal  mourning  lasted  a  month, 
during  which  time  no  work  was  allowed  to 
be  done  in  the  land.  No  boat  could  start 
nor  any  one  carry  a  load,  until  the  queen 
was  buried.  But  while  others  were  resting, 
I  was  toiling  hard  night  and  day,  for  thirty 
days,  for  all  were  waiting  for  me. 

"The  morning  after  Namasole  died,  Mr. 
O  'Flaherty  and  I  went  to  court  to  pay  our 
respects  to  the  king.    All  the  chiefs  were 

180 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


clad  in  rags,  and  crying,  or  rather  roaring, 
with  their  hands  clasped  above  their  heads. 
Mutesa  determined  to  make  a  funeral  to 
surpass  in  splendor  any  burial  that  had  ever 
taken  place  in  the  country.  Such  is  the  de- 
sire of  every  king  to  outstrip  his  predeces- 
sors. Fifty  thousand  bark  cloths  were  or- 
dered to  be  levied  in  the  land,  besides  some 
thousand  of  yards  of  English  calico. 

"Mutesa  asked  me  how  we  buried  royalty 
in  Europe?  I  replied  that  we  made  three 
coffins,  the  inner  of  wood,  the  next  of  lead, 
and  the  outer  of  wood  covered  with  cloth. 
I  knew  the  custom  of  the  Waganda  in  bury- 
ing their  kings.  It  is  to  wrap  the  body, 
after  mummifying  it,  in  several  thousand 
bark  cloths,  and  to  bury  the  great  pile  in  a 
huge  grave,  building  a  house  over  all  and 
appointing  certain  witches  to  guard  the 
grave  for  generations. 

"  'Would  you  be  able  to  make  the  three 
coffins?'  Mutesa  asked  me. 

"I  replied,  'Yes,  if  you  find  the  material.' 

' '  He  said  he  had  no  lead  but  he  had  a  lot 
181 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


of  copper  trays  and  drums  which  he  would 
supply,  if  I  could  manufacture  a  coffin  out 
of  them. 

"Frequently  we  had  been  twitted  by  the 
king  at  court  for  failing  to  work  for  him; 
accordingly  I  agreed  to  be  undertaker, 
thinking  it  a  small  affair.  But  then  the  di- 
mensions! Everything  was  to  be  as  large 
as  possible!!  Immediately  all  the  copper 
in  the  king's  stores  was  turned  out  and  sent 
down  to  our  mission.  Fine  large  bronze 
trays  of  Egyptian  workmanship,  copper 
drums,  copper  cans  and  copper  pots  and 
plates — all  were  produced,  and  out  of 
these  materials  I  was  to  make  a  coffin  for 
the  queen.  All  the  skilled  workmen  were 
ordered  to  my  assistance. 

"Next  morning  I  went  off  to  Rusaka  some 
three  miles  distant,  to  measure  the  body. 
Much  objection  was  made  by  the  royal 
ladies  there  at  my  going  in  to  measure  the 
corpse.  But  my  friend  Kyambalango  was 
there,  as  master  of  ceremonies,  and  he  ex- 
plained that  I  was  commissioned  by  the 

182 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


king.  But  I  was  somewhat  taken  aback  on 
being  told  by  some  of  the  other  chiefs  that 
I  should  have  measured  not  the  corpse  but 
the  dimensions  of  the  grave,  and  make  the 
coffin  to  fit  the  latter.  I  told  them  there 
was  not  copper  enough  in  the  land  to  make 
a  box  larger  than  necessary;  that  if  there 
Avas,  I  would  willingly  make  a  coffin  as  large 
as  a  mountain,  but  as  it  was,  I  could  make 
the  inner  coffins  to  suit  the  body  and  the 
outer  one  as  large  as  a  house  if  they  liked. 
"In  ten  days'  time  we  had  finished  the 
two  inner  coffins,  the  first  being  of  wood, 
cushioned  all  inside  with  cotton  wool,  and 
covered  all  over,  inside  and  out,  with  snow 
white  calico,  secured  with  a  thousand  copper 
tacks.  Ornamental  work  I  made  by  cutting 
patterns  out  of  black  and  white  pocket- 
handkerchiefs,  and  tacking  them  on.  The 
copper  box  measured  seven  feet  long  by 
three  feet  wide  and  three  feet  high,  shaped 
like  a  coffin.  But  the  king's  copper  was 
enough  for  barely  more  than  the  lid  and 
ends,  so  we  had  to  supply  for  the  sides  four 

183 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


sheets  of  copper  plate,  which  the  king  paid 
for  at  once  in  ivory,  as  we  did  not  think 
well  to  give  these  away  out  of  the  mission 's 
stores.  We  gave  our  workmanship  and 
skill  and  time,  besides  the  tools,  and  all  the 
iron  nails  (no  small  quantity).  We  re- 
ceived copper  wire  as  an  equivalent  for  the 
copper  tacks.  Even  the  copper  coffin  we 
neatly  lined  all  over  inside  with  white  calico 
tacked  onto  laths  which  were  first  riveted  to 
the  copper  plate. 

"It  is  needless  to  describe  the  worry  and 
trouble  we  had,  working  late  and  early,  and 
sometimes  all  the  night.  At  every  hour  of 
the  day  pages  were  sent  down  to  inspect  the 
progress  and  ask  when  it  would  be  done. 
The  native  workmen,  especially  the  head- 
men among  them,  would  do  almost  nothing, 
and  generally  spoiled  what  they  did.  They 
preferred  sitting  down  all  day  smoking,  and 
watching  how  I  did.  I  was  able  to  get  some 
assistance,  however,  from  several  of  the 
younger  fellows. 

"But  even  in  the  doing  of  a  small  piece 
184 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


of  work  like  this,  which  all  granted  was  far 
beyond  their  own  powers  to  accomplish, 
there  must  needs  be  an  exhibition  of  jeal- 
ousy and  ill  feeling  on  the  part  of  some 
chiefs  and  Arabs. 

"They  told  the  king  that  we  made  the 
coffins  small,  much  too  small  for  Namasole, 
because  we  wanted  the  timber  to  finish  our 
own  house  with;  that  we  had  already  se- 
creted in  our  house  a  lot  of  boards;  that 
perhaps  we  might  show  good  workmanship, 
but  we  could  not  work  fast. 

"Mutesa  alone  stood  our  friend.  He  re- 
fused to  believe  that  we  had  appropriated 
any  boards,  while  he  said  to  our  accusers 
that  what  was  done  well  could  not  be  done 
in  a  day.  'Can  a  woman  cook  plantains 
well  if  you  hurry  her?'  asked  the  friendly 
king. 

"In  a  week's  time  we  had  about  a  hun- 
dred boards  cut  and  squared  to  fit,  and 
nailed  together  with  strong  ribs  like  the 
sides  of  a  schooner.  When  together,  it 
looked  like  a  small  house,  rather  than  a 

185 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


coffin.  After  a  few  more  days,  we  had 
enough  boards  for  the  lid.  Then  we  cov- 
ered the  whole  outside  with  native  bark 
cloth,  and  lined  the  inside  with  pure  snow- 
white  calico.  Each  side  was  made  a  piece 
by  itself  so  that  it  might  be  easily  carried. 
A  thousand  men  arrived  to  bear  the  parts  to 
the  grave,  and  most  fortunately  it  did  not 
rain.  We  jmt  them  together  before  the 
king,  who  challenged  all  to  say  if  such 
workmanship  could  be  done  in  the  country 
by  Waganda,  or  if  anything  of  the  kind  had 
ever  been  seen  in  the  land. 

"Next  day  we  had  the  king's  orders  to  go 
to  the  burial.  He  wanted  us  to  go  the  same 
day,  but  we  were  too  tired,  having  for  a  full 
month  been  constantly  at  saw  and  hammer 
from  dawn  to  midnight,  and  often  later. 

"The  grave  was  a  huge  pit,  some  twenty 
feet  by  fifteen  feet  at  the  mouth,  by  about 
thirty  feet  deep.  It  was  dug  in  the  center 
of  the  late  queen's  sleeping-house — a  mon- 
strous hut  some  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
in  diameter.     The  monster  pit  was  neatly 

186 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


lined  all  round  with  bark  cloth.  Into  this 
several  thousand  new  bark  cloths  were 
thrown  and  carefully  spread  on  the  bottom 
filling  up  the  hole  a  long  way.  Then  the 
sides  of  the  huge  box  were  lowered  in  with 
much  trouble.  I  descended  and  nailed  the 
corners  together. 

"After  that  I  was  summoned  to  the  cere- 
mony of  putting  the  corpse  into  the  coffin. 
Thousands  of  women  were  there,  yelling 
with  all  their  might,  and  a  few  with  tears 
in  their  eyes.  Only  the  ladies  of  the  royal 
family  and  the  highest  chiefs  were  near  the 
corpse,  which  by  this  time  was  reduced  to  a 
mummy  by  constantly  squeezing  out  the 
fluids  with  rags  of  bark  cloth.  It  was 
wrapped  in  a  new  cloth,  and  laid  on  the 
ground.  The  chiefs  half  filled  the  nicely 
padded  coffin  with  bleached  calico ;  then  sev- 
eral bundles  of  petty  charms  belonging  to 
the  queen  were  put  in;  after  that,  the 
corpse;  and  then  the  coffin  was  filled  up 
with  more  calico. 

"Kimbugwa,  Kauta,  and  the  other  chiefs 
187 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


in  charge,  carried  the  coffin  to  the  court, 
where  the  grave-house  was,  when  much 
more  yelling  took  place.  I  screwed  the  lid 
down,  but  such  was  the  affection  of  some  of 
the  royal  ladies  for  the  deceased  that  I  had 
to  have  them  ordered  away,  because  of  their 
crying  and  tears  and  hugging  of  the  coffin, 
before  I  could  get  near  to  perform  my 
duties  as  undertaker. 

"Then  came  the  copper  coffin,  into  which 
the  other  was  lowered  by  means  of  a  huge 
sheet.  The  lid  of  that  had  to  be  riveted 
down,  and  that  process  was  new  to  the 
chiefs  standing  by.  'He  cuts  iron  like 
thread!'  they  said,  as  the  pincers  snapped 
the  nails.  '  Mackay  is  a  proper  smith ! '  they 
all  shouted. 

"With  no  mechanical  contrivances,  it  was 
astonishing  how  they  got  the  copper  coffin, 
with  its  ponderous  contents,  lowered  into 
the  deep  grave  without  letting  it  fall  end 
foremost  into  the  great  box  below.  The 
task  was  effected,  however,  by  means  of  the 
great  multitude  of  men. 

188 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


"Thousands  of  yards  of  unbleached  calico 
were  then  filled  in  round  and  over  the  cop- 
per coffin,  until  the  big  box  was  half  full. 
The  remainder  was  filled  up  with  bark 
cloths,  as  also  all  the  space  round  the  out- 
side of  the  box.  The  lid  was  lowered,  and 
I  descended  once  more  to  nail  it  down. 
Several  thousand  more  pieces  of  bark  cloth 
were  then  laid  on  till  within  three  feet  of 
the  surface,  when  earth  was  thrown  in  to 
the  level  of  the  floor. 

"We  returned  at  dusk,  but  the  burying 
was  not  completed  till  nearly  midnight. 
Next  morning,  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  the  land  had  their  heads  shaved,  and  put 
off  their  mourning  dress  of  tattered  bark 
cloth  and  belts  of  plantain  leaves.  The 
country  had  been  waiting  till  we  were  done 
with  our  carpentry." 

In  the  grave  of  Queen  Namasole  that  day, 
it  is  said,  there  was  buried  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  bark  cloth  and 
calico.  A  more  splendid  burial  had  never 
before  been  given  to  royalty  in  Uganda. 

189 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


King  Mutesa  was  proud  to  think  that  in  his 
kingdom  so  wonderful  a  piece  of  work  was 
possible.  Mackay  had  won  his  good  will  as 
never  before,  and  was  longing  and  praying 
that  at  last  he  might  be  used  to  win  Mu- 
tesa's  heart  for  the  Lord  Christ. 

It  was  shortly  before  Christmas  that  his 
great  opportunity  came  to  plead  with  the 
king.  This  is  the  story  of  what  took  place 
as  Mackay  tells  it. 

"In  the  king's  haraza,  strangers  were 
called  forward  to  describe  burial  customs  in 
various  parts  of  Africa  and  Arabia.  Some 
told  of  burying  scores  of  living  virgins  with 
a  dead  king ;  others  told  of  how  human  lives 
were  offered  as  sacrifices  on  like  occasions; 
while  others  told  of  the  pomp  and  ceremony 
displayed  at  funerals. 

"Turning  to  Mackay,  the  king  asked; 
'Tell  me  how  they  bury  in  your  country? 
Do  they  do  as  I  did  in  burying  Namasole? 
Did  you  see  any  human  sacrifices  then?' 

"Masudi  (an  Arab)  began  to  describe  to 
me  how  when  Mutesa 's  grandfather  died, 

190 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


his  father  had  thousands  slaughtered  at  the 
grave. 

"  'Don't  mention  such  things/  I  said  to 
Masudi,  with  such  a  gesture  of  horror  that 
he  became  quiet  at  once;  'they  are  too  cruel 
to  be  spoken  about  before  the  Mutesa  of  to- 
day. You,  Mutesa,  far  surpass  any  one,  not 
only  in  Africa,  or  in  Arabia,  or  in  India, 
but  even  in  Europe  itself.  I  never  heard 
of  so  much  valuable  cloth  being  buried  in  a 
royal  grave  as  you  buried  with  Namasole.' 
This,  of  course,  pleased  him,  as  black  men 
are  fond  of  flattery.  'But  let  me  tell  you 
that  all  that  fine  cloth  and  those  fine  coffins 
will  one  day  all  be  rotten.  It  may  take  ten 
years,  or  may  be  a  hundred  years,  or  it  may 
be  a  thousand  years;  but  some  day  all  will 
be  rotten,  and  the  body  inside  will  rot  too. 
Now  we  know  this,  hence  in  Christian  coun- 
tries we  say  that  it  matters  little  in  what 
way  the  body  is  buried,  for  it  will  rot  some 
time  or  other;  but  it  matters  everything 
what  becomes  of  the  soul.  Look  at  these 
two  head  chiefs  of  yours  sitting  by  you. 

191 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


The  katikiro  is  your  right  hand  and  Kyam- 
balango  is  your  left  hand.  They  are  both 
very  rich.  Next  to  you  they  are  the  great- 
est in  the  kingdom.  They  have  cloth  and 
cattle  and  lands  and  women  and  slaves — 
very  much  of  all.  Here  they  have  much 
honor,  and  when  they  die  they  will  be  buried 
with  much  honor,  but  yet  their  bodies  will 
one  day  rot. 

"  'Now  let  me  have  only  an  old  bark  cloth, 
and  nothing  more  of  this  world's  riches,  and 
I  would  not  exchange  my  place  for  all  the 
wealth  and  all  the  greatness  of  both  the  ka- 
tikiro and  Kyambalango.  All  their  great- 
ness will  pass  away,  and  their  souls  are  lost 
in  the  darkness  of  belief  in  the  wizards, 
while  I  know  that  my  soul  is  saved  by  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  so  that  I  have 
riches  that  never  perish  which  they  know 
nothing  about.' 

"The  katikiro,  evidently  struck  by  my 
contempt  of  all  his  greatness,  replied  that 
Mutesa  was  a  believer  in  Jesus  Christ,  while 
he  was  a  servant  of  Mutesa,  consequently 

192 


MACKAY'S  NEW  NAME 


he  was  a  Christian.  Mutesa  then  began  his 
usual  excuses. 

' '  '  There  are  these  two  religions, '  he  said. 
'When  Masudi  reads  his  book,  the  Koran, 
the  white  men  call  it  lies;  when  the  white 
men  read  their  book,  Masudi  calls  it  lies. 
"Which  is  true?' 

"I  left  my  seat,  and  going  forward  to 
the  mat  on  which  the  katikiro  was  sitting, 
I  knelt  on  it,  and  in  the  most  solemn  man- 
ner, I  said,  'Oh,  Mutesa,  my  friend,  do  not 
always  repeat  that  excuse !  When  you  and 
I  stand  before  God  at  the  great  day  of 
judgment,  will  you  reply  to  Almighty  God 
that  you  did  not  know  what  to  believe  be- 
cause Masudi  told  you  one  thing  and 
Mackay  told  you  another?  No,  you  have 
the  New  Testament ;  read  there  for  yourself. 
God  will  judge  you  by  that.  There  never 
was  any  one  yet  who  looked  for  the  truth 
there  and  did  not  find  it.'  " 

So  Mackay  pleaded  with  Mutesa.  Never 
again  did  another  opportunity  come.  Like 
Agrippa  in  the  days  of  Paul,  this  black 

193 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


king  did  not  heed  the  Christian  plea.  His 
health  grew  worse  continually.  Weak  and 
suffering  intensely,  he  was  unable  to  hold 
baraza.  Two  years  after  his  mother's  pom- 
pous funeral,  he  too  died,  and  died  a  hea- 
then. 


194 


CHAPTER  X 

THREE  BOY  HEROES  AND  ONE  BOY  TYRANT 

BUSY  writing  home  letters,  one  night  in 
October,  1884,  Mr.  O 'Flaherty  for 
hours  had  been  the  only  one  astir  in  the 
missionaries'  home.  From  his  upstairs 
window,  in  the  midnight  stillness,  he  heard 
some  one  below  softly  calling  his  name, 
"Bwana  Philipo!  Bwana  Philipo."  Slip- 
ping down  stairs,  he  found  a  native  Chris- 
tian with  a  friend,  who  under  cover  of  the 
night  had  run  to  break  the  news  which  the 
missionaries  had  long  dreaded  to  hear. 

"King  Mutesa  is  dead,"  they  said,  "for- 
tify yourselves;  the  mission  house  will 
probably  be  plundered,  and  who  knows  how 
many  may  be  murdered  % ' ' 

Mr.  O  'Flaherty  returned  to  the  house  and 
woke  Mr.  Ashe,  who  shortly  before  had  ar- 

195 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


rived  as  a  new  missionary  in  Uganda.  Mr. 
Mackay  was  down  at  the  port  on  the  lake, 
twelve  miles  away,  overhauling  the  new  mis- 
sion boat.  As  the  two  men  talked  and 
prayed  together,  seeking  to  know  the  wisest 
step  to  take,  now  and  again  the  quick  beat 
of  drums  was  heard,  while  every  gust  of 
wind  sweeping  across  the  valleys  bore  the 
weird  cries  of  the  palace  mourners. 

Judging  from  the  amount  of  wailing  at 
court,  one  might  suppose  the  late  monarch 
had  been  greatly  beloved  by  his  subjects; 
but  a  glance  behind  the  scenes  before  his 
death  might  have  led  to  a  different  opinion. 
The  direct  cause  of  Mutesa's  death  will 
never  be  known.  Some  said  that  the  Arab 's 
medicine  had  proved  to  be  a  poison  instead 
of  a  cure,  while  others  reported  that  the 
king  had  been  smothered  to  death  by  some 
of  his  own  wives.  If  either  of  these  reports 
be  true,  we  may  be  sure  that  those  who  took 
his  life  were  among  the  loudest  mourners. 

It  was  an  anxious  night  for  all  who  had 
heard  the  news.     For  generations,  the  death 

196 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


of  a  monarch,  in  Uganda  had  been  the  signal 
for  robbery  and  bloodshed.  People,  some- 
times to  the  number  of  two  thousand,  had 
been  captured  in  the  highways  and  offered 
as  sacrifices  at  the  grave  of  the  dead  ruler. 
Until  the  chiefs  met  and  chose  a  new  king 
from  among  the  sons  of  the  late  monarch, 
no  one  was  sure  of  his  life.  Upon  the 
crowning  of  the  fortunate  prince,  all  his 
brothers  who  had  been  held  as  prisoners 
would  be  slain  except  the  eldest,  who  ac- 
cording to  Uganda  custom,  never  sat  on  the 
throne.  The  old  chiefs  who  had  elected  the 
new  king  were  then  usually  deposed  and 
some  of  them  beheaded ;  while  the  young  rul- 
er chose  new  chiefs  and  new  court  officers. 
Until  the  young  king  was  well  established 
on  his  throne,  Uganda  usually  was  a  land 
full  of  murder  and  thievery. 

So  on  the  death  of  King  Mutesa,  the  mis- 
sionaries feared  the  usual  cruelties.  Al- 
though Mutesa  had  not  been  to  them  always 
a  faithful  friend,  yet  they  realized  that  it 
was  his  protection  which  had  kept  the  jeal- 

197 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


ous  chiefs  and  Arabs  from  driving  them 
from  the  land  long  ago.  What  was  there 
now  to  keep  a  bloodthirsty  mob  from  attack- 
ing them,  from  burning  their  houses,  from 
plundering  their  gardens,  and  from  sending 
them  out  of  the  country  or  perhaps  tortur- 
ing them  to  death  ?  And  would  their  faith- 
ful Christians  have  to  suffer  with  them'? 
With  these  thoughts  of  possible  danger,  the 
missionaries  prayed  to  the  Father;  and 
trusting  in  his  protection,  they  waited  for 
the  morning. 

Early  the  next  day,  two  messengers  ar- 
rived from  Mr.  Mackay  who,  when  they  left 
the  lake,  had  not  yet  heard  the  news.  The 
men,  having  been  robbed  of  their  clothing 
on  the  way  and  compelled  to  flee  for  their 
lives,  were  in  a  sorry  plight  on  reaching 
the  missionaries'  home.  In  the  meantime, 
Mackay  worked  hard  all  day  at  the  boat. 
At  sundown  when  he  was  about  to  have  his 
supper  of  plantains,  he  saw  the  people  of 
the  place  coming  toward  him  armed  with 
shields  and  spears.     On  hearing  the  all-im- 

198 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


portant  news,  lie  immediately  launched  the 
mission  boat  so  that  the  entire  party  might 
quickly  escaped  if  the  mission  house  was 
burned,  as  those  who  reported  the  king's 
death  assured  him  it  would  be. 

But  thanks  to  the  katikiro,  who  became 
the  ruler  until  the  new  king  was  chosen, 
the  slaughters  and  thefts  which  all  expected, 
were  checked.  Probably  some  lives  were 
taken,  but  these  were  comparatively  so  few 
that  the  missionaries  knew  nothing  of  them 
until  later.  In  the  council  of  the  great 
chiefs,  the  question  was  debated  whether  or 
not  both  the  missionaries  and  the  Arabs 
should  be  attacked.  In  this  council,  some 
were  eager  to  rush  at  once  to  the  plunder; 
but  it  was  the  word  of  the  katikiro  which 
held  them  in  check  and  which  saved  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  foreigners  from 
the  hands  of  their  enemies. 

But  who  was  to  be  the  new  king?  The 
people  waited  breathlessly  for  the  decision 
of  the  council  of  the  great  chiefs.  When 
the  announcement  was  made,  a  great  cheer- 

199 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


ing  arose  from  the  palace,  and  some  Chris- 
tian boy  escaped  from  the  crowd  unnoticed 
and  ran  to  tell  the  news  to  his  white  friends. 

"Mwanga  alide  B  Uganda."  (Mwanga 
has  eaten  Uganda),  he  said. 

To  the  missionaries  this  seemed  good 
news.  Mwanga  was  a  lad  about  eighteen 
years  of  age  who  looked  more  like  his  father 
than  any  of  his  brothers.  During  Mutesa's 
reign,  he  had  occasionally  visited  the  mis- 
sionaries and  had  learned  a  little  of  read- 
ing. 

"If  you  should  become  king  on  your 
father's  death,  how  will  you  treat  us?" 
Mr.  Ashe  had  once  asked  him  when  the  boy 
was  paying  a  visit  to  the  missionaries. 

"I  shall  like  you  very  much,  and  show 
you  every  favor, ' '  was  the  reply. 

However,  it  spoiled  Mwanga  to  be  made 
king  of  Uganda.  During  Mutesa  's  lifetime, 
his  sons  had  no  power,  living  lives  but  lit- 
tle better  than  those  of  the  ordinary  blacks ; 
now,  while  still  only  a  boy,  Mwanga  was 
made  the  great  king  of  Uganda,  and  he  knew 

200 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


no  one  in  all  the  world  so  powerful  as  him- 
self. 

So  sudden  a  change  was  enough  to  turn 
the  head  of  a  stronger  man  than  Mwanga. 
He  began  to  show  all  his  father's  weak- 
nesses without  any  of  his  strong  points. 
Instead  of  being  the  real  ruler  of  Uganda, 
he  soon  became  the  slave  of  his  katikiro. 
Mwanga  seemed  always  afraid  to  do  what 
he  knew  was  right ;  and,  when  urged  by  his 
katikiro  and  chiefs  to  do  wrong,  he  always 
proved  too  weak  to  say  "no."  The  kati- 
kiro, the  same  man  that  held  the  position  in 
Mutesa's  reign,  along  with  certain  of  the 
chiefs  hated  the  missionaries  exceedingly, 
and  it  did  not  take  long  for  Mwanga  to  catch 
their  spirit  and  to  be  ready  to  follow  their 
leading. 

First,  Mwanga,  wanting  to  impress  the 
missionaries  by  his  new  power,  haughtily 
refused  to  see  them  when  they  first  called 
to  pay  him  their  respects.  Somewhat  dis- 
heartened by  this  first  reception,  the  mis- 
sionaries did  not  venture  again  to  the  court 

201 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


until  some  days  later;  and  for  this  neglect 
they  were  chided  by  Mwanga. 

The  second  day  after  Mutesa's  death  was 
announced,  the  "white  man  of  work"  was 
called  from  repairing  his  boat  by  the  chiefs 
who  found  they  could  not  build  the  dead 
king's  coffin  without  the  help  of  the  white 
men.  As  soon  as  this  work  was  completed, 
Mackay  returned  to  the  lake  shore.  While 
he  was  absent  from  the  capital,  his  enemies 
busied  themselves  circulating  slanderous  re- 
ports about  him.  They  said  that,  having 
slept  in  the  boat  at  night,  he  came  ashore  in 
the  morning  and  stole  the  people 's  plantains 
and  goats.  The  fact  of  the  matter  was  that 
the  boat  was  beached  at  the  time,  receiving 
a  coat  of  paint,  and  Mackay  was  ill  with 
fever  in  his  tent. 

Mwanga  had  not  long  been  king  when  the 
rumor  was  brought  to  his  court  that  an  army 
of  white  men  was  marching  to  Uganda  by 
way  of  the  land  of  Usoga.  Usoga  was  a 
country  just  east  of  Uganda,  the  only  neigh- 
bor of  which  the  king  was  really  afraid. 

202 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


For  generations  the  prophecy  had  been 
handed  down  among  the  "Waganda  that 
some  day  Uganda  would  be  "eaten  up" 
(conquered)  by  enemies  entering  the  coun- 
try from  the  eastern  side  through  Usoga, 
the  "back  door." 

Now,  there  were  many  reasons  to  make 
Mwanga  begin  to  think  that  the  foreigners 
who  were  coming  were  enemies.  He  had 
heard  of  fighting  on  the  part  of  the  English 
in  Egypt  to  the  north.  News  reached 
him  that  the  Germans  (to  him  the  same  as 
the  English),  were  fighting  for  land  in  the 
region  of  Zanzibar;  after  gaining  their 
prize  there,  he  expected  them  to  march  in- 
land, conquering  as  they  came.  In  addi- 
tion, he  had  been  told  of  English  and  Ger- 
mans who  were  living  at  the  southern  end 
of  Victoria  Lake.  Now,  worst  of  all,  there 
was  an  army  of  white  men  in  Usoga. 
Surely,  the  Englishmen  already  in  Uganda 
were  part  of  this  great  force  and,  after  hav- 
ing gathered  a  large  number  of  followers 
in  his  kingdom,  they  would  unite  with  the 

203 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


army  in  Usoga  and  "eat  up  the  land."  A 
spark  was  all  that  was  needed  to  fire  these 
suspicions.  This  spark  was  supplied  by 
Mujasi,  the  captain  of  the  king's  body- 
guard, who  had  long  been  a  bitter  enemy  of 
the  missionaries. 

One  day  Mujasi  noticed  a  lad,  formerly 
a  follower  of  his,  repairing  the  missionaries ' 
fence.  He  complained  to  the  katikiro  that 
the  white  men  were  ruining  the  country, 
that  they  paid  men  to  work  for  them,  so 
that  the  chiefs  like  himself  could  no  longer 
get  workers  for  nothing.  A  few  days  later, 
several  Christian  lads,  the  servants  of  a  cer- 
tain chief,  attended  the  communion  service 
on  Sabbath  at  the  mission  instead  of  thatch- 
ing a  roof  for  the  chief.  Because  of  this 
complaints  were  made. 

Mwanga's  mother  hearing  of  what  had 
happened,  exaggerated  the  report  by  saying 
to  the  katikiro  that  no  chiefs  could  get 
work  done,  because  the  missionaries  were 
inducing  hosts  of  people  to  serve  them  with 
the  purpose  of  raising  an  army  of  rebellion. 

204 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


Mujasi  also  added  the  charge  that  every 
time  Mackay  crossed  the  lake,  he  took  hun- 
dreds of  Waganda  with  him.  All  these 
complaints  together  with  the  story  of  the 
white  men  in  Usoga  prepared  the  way  for 
the  first  terrible  crisis  which  broke  out  a 
few  days  later. 

Mr.  Mackay,  having  finished  repairing  the 
boat,  gained  permission  from  the  king  and 
the  katikiro  to  go  to  Msulala  at  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  lake  in  order  to  take  letters 
for  home  friends  to  a  place  where  they 
would  be  carried  on  to  the  coast.  About 
ten  o'clock  the  next  morning,  the  party 
started  on  the  twelve  mile  walk  to  the  port. 
The  crew  carrying  the  baggage  and  boat's 
gear,  five  or  six  of  the  schoolboys  together 
with  Mr.  Mackay  and  Mr.  Ashe,  made  up 
the  company. 

The  boys  and  the  crew  with  the  loads 
went  ahead,  the  two  missionaries  bringing 
up  the  rear.  While  on  their  way,  a  rumor 
reached  them  that  Mujasi  was  out  with  a 
large  army.    As  they  walked  along,  every 

205 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


now  and  then  they  met  companies  of  men, 
armed  with  spears,  hurrying  past  them. 
Becognizing  one  of  the  men,  Mr.  Mackay 
asked  him  where  the  soldiers  were  going. 
He  looked  a  little  confused  but  replied  that 
they  had  been  ordered  by  Mujasi  to  capture 
some  of  the  king's  women  who  had  run 
away.  The  company  walked  on  until  they 
were  within  a  couple  of  miles  of  the  lake. 
They  were  just  entering  a  bit  of  scrubby 
forest,  when  a  force  of  several  hundred  men 
headed  by  Mujasi  himself  sprang  upon 
them.  Armed  with  guns,  spears,  and 
shields,  they  shouted,  "Go  back!  go  back!" 
"We  are  the  king's  friends,  we  have  re- 
ceived the  king's  leave.  How  do  you  dare 
to  insult  the  king's  guests?"  the  mission- 
aries asked  as  they  tried  to  proceed.  At 
this  the  crowd  rushed  upon  them,  snatching 
from  them  their  walking  sticks,  their  only 
weapons,  and  jostling  them  about  in  every 
direction.  Mackay  and  Ashe  did  not  at- 
tempt to  fight,  but  calmly  sat  down  by  the 
side  of  the  path. 

206 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


"Where  are  you  going?"  demanded  Mu- 
jasi. 

"We  are  going  to  the  port,  having  been 
given  the  permission  of  the  king  and  kati- 
kiro." 

"You  lie,"  he  replied.  "Where  is  the 
Waganda  messenger  to  go  with  you?" 

"We  have  none,"  was  the  answer. 

Again  the  crowd  of  warriors  rushed  upon 
them,  pulled  them  to  their  feet,  and  pointed 
the  muzzles  of  their  guns  right  at  the  white 
men's  breasts.  The  captives,  however,  said 
nothing,  but  quietly  abandoning  the  trip  to 
the  lake,  they  reversed  their  steps,  thinking 
this  was  merely  a  mad  freak  of  Mujasi's, 
and  never  suspecting  that  he  was  acting  un- 
der the  king's  orders.  The  mob  continued 
to  yell  at  them,  to  mock  and  to  abuse  them 
with  the  most  offensive  language,  until  they 
tired  of  hearing  their  own  voices,  seeing 
that  the  missionaries  walked  quietly  on. 

When  they  finally  came  to  the  point 
where  two  roads  met,  one  leading  directly  to 
Mengo,  Mwanga's  new  capital,  the  other  to 

207 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


the  missionaries'  home,  they  halted  until 
the  crew  and  the  five  Christian  boys  over- 
took them.  The  crew,  after  being  robbed  of 
their  guns,  were  freed,  while  the  five  Chris- 
tian boys  were  marched  along  with  their 
hands  bound.  The  missionaries  were  then 
told  to  go  back  to  their  own  home,  and  the 
Waganda  boys  under  guard  were  marched 
off  to  the  capital.  It  was  now  three  o  'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  and  the  missionaries  had 
been  walking  for  five  hours.  Wearied  and 
disappointed,  they  sat  down  to  consider 
what  should  be  done  next.  Mr.  Ashe  tells 
the  story  of  what  then  happened: 

"We  decided  to  lose  no  time,  but  to  lay 
the  whole  matter  at  once  before  the  kati- 
kiro.  When  we  reached  his  enclosure,  we 
were  bidden  to  wait.  No  one  dared  to  an- 
nounce our  presence  to  the  katikiro,  as  Mu- 
jasi  was  having  a  private  interview  with 
him,  reporting  his  success  in  the  late  en- 
counter. After  waiting  some  time,  we  got 
up  and  went  to  the  doorway,  and  Mackay 
called  out  loudly,  'Katikiro,  my  friend.    I 

208 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


am  your  friend.  We  are  the  white  men.' 
After  calling  once  or  twice,  we  were  ad- 
mitted and  invited  inside  the  house. 
Mackay  stated  our  case  and  asked  why  we 
had  been  so  badly  treated." 

To  the  surprise  of  the  missionaries,  the 
katikiro  merely  smiled  and  said  that  Mu- 
jasi  had  turned  them  back  because  he  found 
them  taking  Waganda  out  of  the  country. 
Mackay  assured  him  that  nothing  of  the 
kind  had  been  done. 

"Oh,  yes,  Mujasi  has  caught  five,"  in- 
sisted the  katikiro. 

Just  then  another  case  came  on  for  hear- 
ing and  the  subject  was  dropped.  As  soon 
as  possible,  Mackay  insisted  on  their  return- 
ing to  the  case  about  which  they  were  most 
concerned,  and  told  the  katikiro  that  it  was 
not  right  for  them  to  treat  their  guests  as 
they  had  done. 

"You  are  always  taking  away  our  people 
and  returning  with  hosts  of  white  men  and 
hiding  them  in  Usoga  with  the  intention  of 
eating  up  our  country,"  he  cried. 

209 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Suddenly  with  flashing  eyes,  he  turned  to 
Mujasi  and  said:  "To-morrow  morning 
take  your  army  and  tie  up  Philipo  and  this 
other  man,  Mackay,  and  drive  them  back  to 
the  country  from  which  they  came." 

Mr.  Ashe  says:  "Mackay  and  I  were  ut- 
terly taken  aback  and  astounded  at  this  de- 
cision, and  we  begged  the  katikiro  to  hear 
us,  and  tried  to  take  his  hand  to  plead  once 
more.  But  he  waved  us  scornfully  aside, 
and,  with  a  cry  of  triumph  from  Mujasi 's 
soldiers,  we  were  hustled  and  dragged  from 
the  great  man's  presence,  a  dangerous  and 
angry  mob  momentarily  growing  thicker 
about  us.  Soon  they  were  actually  quar- 
reling for  our  clothes.  'Mine  shall  be  his 
coat,'  shrieked  one;  'Mine  his  trousers;'  'No 
mine ! '  and  there  was  a  scuffle  to  get  nearer 
the  clothing  they  coveted.  However,  the 
katikiro  did  not  wish  matters  to  go  quite 
so  far,  and  sent  his  head  executioners  to 
warn  off  the  vulture  soldiers.  The  order 
was  instantly  obeyed,  and  dazed  and  amazed 
we  found  ourselves  alone.    It  was  now  near 

210 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


sunset  and  we  made  our  way  back  home  in 
a  very  unhappy  frame  of  mind." 

In  the  quiet  of  their  home,  the  mission- 
aries knelt  together  and  poured  out  their 
hearts  in  prayer  to  the  Heavenly  Father, 
trusting  in  his  protection  and  asking  for  his 
guidance.  It  grieved  them  to  think  that  the 
work  of  the  mission  might  be  suddenly 
ended;  yet  it  looked  as  though  the  katikiro 
and  Mujasi  meant  to  kill  every  one  they 
might  find  who  had  come  to  the  missionaries 
to  learn. 

Fortunately  some  cloth  was  still  left  in 
the  house.  This  they  finally  decided  to  turn 
into  presents.  Six  loads  were  sent  to  the 
king,  six  to  the  katikiro,  and  one  to  Mujasi, 
with  the  hope  and  prayer  that  their  anger 
might  be  calmed.  The  katikiro  graciously 
accepted  his  gift,  sending  back  word  that 
again  they  would  be  brothers.  Since  the 
palace  gates  were  closed  for  the  night,  the 
king's  gift  was  returned  with  the  message 
that  the  king  would  receive  it  in  the  morn- 
ing.   Mujasi,  too,  accepted  his  load;  but 

211 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


sent  word  that  he  was  collecting  a  force  to 
rob  them  in  the  morning  and  burn  their 
house;  but  seeing  they  had  sent  presents  to 
the  king  and  katikiro  also,  he  would  await 
further  orders. 

The  missionaries  urged  all  their  Waganda 
servants  and  pupils  who  stayed  on  their 
IDremises  to  flee  for  their  lives.  One  boy, 
however,  Seruwanga  by  name,  would  not 
go.  Mr.  Ashe  finding  him  asked  him  what 
madness  it  was  which  made  him  linger  when 
in  such  danger.  "I  am  going,  my  friend,' ' 
he  answered;  but,  alas,  it  was  too  late. 
That  evening  he,  too,  was  captured.  Dur- 
ing the  night,  under  cover  of  the  darkness, 
two  Christian  young  men  ventured  to  come 
to  the  missionaries'  home  to  tell  them  of 
their  sympathy  and  loyalty.  The  next  day 
Mujasi  came  and  searched  the  house  for 
Waganda  Christians,  but  none  were  found. 

For  some  reason,  all  but  three  of  the  boys 
captured  the  day  before  were  released;  but 
in  the  afternoon  the  report  reached  the  mis- 
sionaries that  Mujasi  was  going  to  burn  to 

212 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


death  the  three  who  were  still  bound.  None 
can  express  the  grief  the  missionaries  felt. 
They  loved  the  boys  as  they  would  have 
loved  their  own  children.  One  of  them, 
Seruwanga,  was  going  to  die  because  he  had 
lingered  too  long  in  the  mission  premises. 

The  second,  Kakumba,  used  to  be  the  page 
of  a  powerful  chief.  On  his  master's  death 
he  had  expressed  the  wish  that  he  might 
come  and  be  the  missionaries'  servant  in- 
stead of  belonging  to  any  other  chief.  So 
he  had  been  allowed  to  live  in  the  mission- 
aries '  household. 

The  third,  Lugalama,  the  youngest  of  all, 
was  a  handsome  young  boy  of  twelve,  who, 
some  years  before,  had  been  carried  away 
from  his  home  as  a  captive  in  war.  Having 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Sebwato,  a  Chris- 
tian chief,  he  was  finally  given  his  freedom 
and  sent  to  Mr.  Ashe  to  be  cared  for.  The 
boy  became  a  true  friend  of  the  missionary 
and  a  general  favorite  about  the  mission 
grounds. 

These  three  boys,  the  oldest  fifteen  and 
213 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


the  youngest  twelve,  were  to  be  burned  to 
death  by  the  savage  Mujasi  merely  for  the 
crime  of  having  lived  with  the  white  men. 
The  missionaries  did  everything  they  could 
to  save  their  boys;  but  all  efforts  were  in 
vain. 

The  sorrowful  story  was  afterwards  told 
to  Mr.  Ashe  by  Kidza,  a  Christian  who  as 
Mujasi 's  guide  had  witnessed  the  cruel 
scene.  This  is  the  account  as  Mr.  Ashe 
gives  it: 

"Lugalama  and  Kakumba,  when  first  ar- 
rested, were  taken  into  a  house,  and  Ka- 
kumba was  beaten  in  accordance  with  a 
common  Uganda  custom  in  the  treatment  of 
prisoners.  They  had  compassion  on  Luga- 
lama and  gave  him  some  food.  Next  day 
they  were  taken  to  the  king's  enclosure  and 
their  sentence  was  pronounced,  Mujasi  be- 
ing the  chief  accuser.  Lugalama 's  former 
master  tried  to  save  him,  but  in  vain. 

"So  the  three  boys,  Seruwanga,  Ka- 
kumba, and  Lugalama,  were  led  away  to 
death,  a  mocking  crowd  following  the 

214 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


"  'Oh,  you  know  Isa  Masiya  [Jesus 
Christ],'  said  Mujasi.  'You  know  how  to 
read.'  'You  believe  you  will  rise  from  the 
dead?'  'Well,  I  shall  burn  you  and  see  if 
it  be  so.' 

"These  were  some  of  the  mocking  taunts 
which  they  endured,  and  loud  was  the  laugh- 
ter which  greeted  such  sallies.  But  the 
young  Christians,  as  some  reported,  an- 
swered boldly  and  faithfully.  Seruwanga 
was  a  daring  fellow,  and  I  can  well  believe 
that  when  Mujasi  mocked  he  would  sing  a 
song  they  often  sang  at  the  Mission,  'Killa 
siku  tuusifu'  ['Daily,  daily  sing  the 
praises'].  Kakumba,  too,  had  come  to  the 
missionaries  when  all  others  were  afraid, 
and  perhaps  his  voice  joined  in  the  song. 
But  what  could  have  been  in  poor  little  Lu- 
galama's  heart  but  the  haunting,  overmas- 
tering horror  of  death — and  such  a  death! 
There  wrere  none  who  dared  to  beat  upon 
their  breasts  and  show  the  sorrow  that  they 
felt,  though  there  were  many  sympathizing 
friends  who  followed,  many  compassionate 

215 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


hearts  that  God  had  touched  with  a  pity 
which  perhaps  before  they  had  never 
known. 

"The  mob,  carrying  gourds  full  of  ba- 
nana-cider, found  their  way  toward  the  bor- 
ders of  a  dismal  swamp.  Here  they  halted. 
Part  of  the  crowd  brought  fire-wood,  others 
made  a  kind  of  rough  frame-work,  under 
which  the  fuel  was  heaped.  Then  the  pris- 
oners were  seized,  and  a  scene  of  sickening 
cruelty  was  enacted.  Some  laid  hold  of  Se- 
ruwanga,  others  of  Kakumba,  and  others  of 
Lugalama,  brandishing  their  long,  curved 
knives.  Seruwanga  committed  his  cause  to 
Him  who  judgeth  righteously,  and  the  cruel 
knife  could  not  wring  from  him  a  cry ;  bleed- 
ing he  was  cast  into  the  fire.  Kakumba  ap- 
pealed to  Mujasi.  Mujasi  believed  in  Allah 
[God],  the  All-merciful — he  pleaded  a  rela- 
tionship with  him;  but,  alas!  there  is  as 
much  mercy  in  the  knife  in  the  execution- 
er's hand  as  in  Mujasi 's  heart,  and  he  too 
underwent  the  short  agony  and  the  flame. 

"And  now  the  saddest  scene  of  all.    Mu- 
216 


THREE  BOY  HEROES 


jasi  bade  them  treat  Lugalama  as  they 
treated  the  others.  They  came  nearer,  and 
he  cried  out,  'Oh,  do  not  cut  off  my  arms; 
I  will  not  struggle — I  will  not  fight !  Only 
throw  me  into  the  fire!'  Surely  this  was 
one  of  the  saddest  prayers  ever  prayed  on 
this  sad  earth — 'Only  throw  me  into  the 
fire!' 

' '  The  butchers  did  their  work  and  marred 
what  was  so  wonderfully  made,  and  the 
poor  bleeding  boy  was  placed  on  the  frame- 
work that  the  slow  fire  might  finish  what  the 
cruel  knife  had  begun.  A  wail  of  anguish 
went  up,  becoming  fainter  and  fainter — a 
last  sob,  and  then  silence. 

"Kidza  stood  sadly  watching  the  sorrow- 
ful scene,  wondering  perhaps  whether  his 
turn  might  be  next,  when  Mujasi,  drunken 
with  blood,  came  to  him.  'Ah,  you  are 
here !  I  will  burn  you  too  and  your  house- 
hold. I  know  you  are  a  follower  of  Isa 
[Jesus]'  'Yes,  I  am,'  said  Kidza,  'and  I 
am  not  ashamed  of  it!'  Mujasi  then  left 
him." 

217 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


"What  shall  I  say  of  that  day  of  wait- 
ing, hoping,  praying,  fearing — praying  not 
vainly,  though  at  the  very  time  the  awful 
deed  was  being  done? 

"Such  prayers  are  not  vain  as  they  may 
seem,  but  the  answer  to  them  is  yet  to  come. 
That  was  a  day  when  the  wrongs  of  Africa 
came  home  to  me  and  burned  themselves 
deep  into  my  very  soul — that  day  when  Lu- 
galama  fell  asleep,  January  thirty-first, 
1885." 


218 


CHAPTER  XI 

STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS   WITH   NERVE 

A  FTER  the  death  of  the  three  Christian 
■£*-  boys,  Mujasi  set  a  guard  about  the 
mission  premises  and  announced  that  he 
would  burn  alive  every  person  who  had 
adopted  the  white  man's  religion.  He  pre- 
sented to  the  king  and  katikiro  a  long  list 
of  those  whom  he  thought  should  be  killed ; 
but,  surprised  at  seeing  the  names  of  certain 
prominent  officers  among  the  rest,  the  ka- 
tikiro cried:  "What,  will  you  kill  chiefs, 
too?"  and  Mujasi  was  thereupon  compelled 
to  cease  his  troubling.  Soon  the  guard 
about  the  mission  premises  was  removed; 
and,  for  a  time,  Mwanga's  thirst  for  blood 
seemed  quenched. 

The  white  men  scarcely  knew,  however, 
when  to  expect  the  storm  again  to  break. 

219 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


If  the  missionaries  were  taken  away  or 
killed,  what  would  become  of  the  little 
Uganda  church  of  about  a  hundred  mem- 
bers ?  Hitherto  the  Christians  had  always 
met  in  the  mission  house  for  worship.  It 
was  the  missionary  who  led  in  the  service, 
and  it  was  he  who  did  most  of  the  teaching. 
To  the  missionaries  the  Christians  came  for 
advice  when  in  difficulty;  and  to  the  mis- 
sionaries they  looked  for  encouragement 
when  disheartened.  If  the  missionaries 
were  gone,  would  these  Waganda  stand  by 
their  Christian  colors'? 

To  help  them  to  be  more  independent  in 
the  time  of  trial  two  things  were  done. 
First,  out  of  their  own  number  certain  men 
were  elected  as  leaders  or  elders.  In  the 
homes  of  these  men  the  Christians  of  the 
neighborhood  would  gather  quietly  to  wor- 
ship or  to  study  reading,  when  it  might  not 
be  safe  to  meet  in  the  missionaries'  home. 
These  elders  were  taught  by  the  white  men 
how  to  lead  in  worship,  and  were  encour- 
aged to  be  worthy  helpers  to  the  others. 

220 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

The  second  thing  done  was  made  possi- 
ble by  the  very  persecutions  they  were  en- 
during. For  some  time  after  the  terrible 
murder,  only  a  few  pupils  dared  to  venture 
to  the  mission  house.  The  missionaries,  be- 
ing relieved  of  much  of  their  teaching,  gave 
their  time  largely  to  translating  and  print- 
ing. Not  even  one  entire  Gospel,  as  yet, 
had  been  translated  into  the  Luganda  lan- 
guage. All  the  Bible  the  Waganda  Chris- 
tians had  (except  a  few  who  could  read  the 
coast  language)  was  a  few  pages  of  Matthew 
and  short  selections  chosen  here  and  there 
from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  If 
their  white  teachers  were  driven  from  the 
country,  how  could  the  young  Christians  be 
expected  to  keep  true  to  their  Saviour,  when 
they  had  so  little  opportunity  to  learn  about 
him?  For  months,  both  by  day  and  by 
night,  the  missionaries  with  the  help  of  a 
small  band  of  the  more  intelligent  Chris- 
tians toiled  away  at  the  translation  of  Mat- 
thew 's  Gospel  into  Luganda. 

No  "readers"  being  arrested  for  some 
221 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


months,  the  Christians,  and  pupils  who  were 
not  Christians  as  yet,  gradually  lost  their 
fear  and  began  to  flock  to  the  mission  as 
before.  Frequently,  the  school  room  and 
the  new  chapel  were  crowded  to  their  ut- 
most. 

Strange  to  say,  Mackay  because  of  his 
mechanical  skill  again  became  popular  at 
court.  One  morning  on  going  to  baraza,  he 
was  very  much  surprised  to  have  the  kati- 
kiro  take  him  warmly  by  the  hand  and  say 
that  now  Mackay  was  a  favorite,  and  might 
have  the  katikiro's  daughter  for  a  wife. 
For  a  reply,  Mackay  merely  asked  him  how 
long  his  favoritism  would  last. 

"The  king  was  very  gracious,"  said 
Mackay,  "expressing  the  hope  that  our  for- 
mer good  relations  were  again  restored.  I 
told  him  that  it  seemed  unreasonable  that  he 
and  his  people  should  value  so  highly  our 
goods  and  workmanship,  while  he  would  not 
listen  to  what  we  said  about  the  soul.  The 
king  said  I  was  right,  and  the  katikiro  also 
said  that  we  'white  men  were  evidently  men 

222 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

of  truth,  for  our  cloth  measured  exactly  as 
stated.  A  box  of  powder  held  the  proper 
number  of  tins,  with  no  sand  mixed  to  adul- 
terate it,  and  our  guns  fired  without  explod- 
ing and  killing  the  purchasers,  while  Arab 
traders  in  salt  mixed  ashes  in  it  to  adulter- 
ate it  and  make  it  look  more ! '  " 

For  some  weeks  Mackay  had  frequent 
talks  with  the  king,  not  hesitating  to  charge 
him  plainly  with  the  terrible  crimes  com- 
mitted in  the  king's  name.  Mwanga,  how- 
ever, continued  to  declare  his  friendship, 
saying  one  day :  "I  will  never  let  you  leave 
me;  and  while  I  live,  and  my  son's  son  lives, 
I  am  determined  to  have  white  men  in  my 
country. ' ' 

Yet  only  a  few  months  later,  or  by  the 
close  of  1885,  Mwanga  showed  himself  a 
very  different  sort  of  king.  The  cruel  part 
of  his  nature  was  awakened.  Again  re- 
ports came  that  an  enemy  was  entering 
Uganda  through  the  land  of  Usoga  and 
would  "eat"  the  country.  A  white  general 
with  a  large  following  was  already  at  the 

223 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


country's  "back  door."  He  and  his  army 
were  being  held  as  prisoners  by  the  chief 
of  that  region  who  was  awaiting  Mwanga's 
orders. 

The  fact  really  was  that  the  white  man 
about  whom  such  swelling  words  were 
spoken  was  not  the  general  of  an  army,  but 
a  missionary,  the  newly  chosen  bishop  for 
Central  and  Eastern  Africa.  Utterly  igno- 
rant of  the  long-standing  prejudice  against 
entering  Uganda  through  Usoga,  Bishop 
Hannington  had  taken  what  seemed  to  him 
the  shortest  and  easiest  road  from  the  coast. 
The  missionaries  in  Uganda  had  written  him 
a  letter  warning  him  of  the  danger,  but  he 
had  never  received  it.  They  had  endeavored 
to  explain  to  Mwanga  that  the  bishop  was 
only  a  teacher  of  God,  like  themselves,  and 
had  not  thought  of  eating  the  country,  but 
the  chiefs  persuaded  his  majesty  to  treat 
all  white  men  as  enemies. 

One  day  a  page  of  the  king  secretly  told 
the  missionaries  that  Mwanga  had  sent  an 
order  to  kill  the  bishop  and  all  his  men. 
224 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

They  hurried  to  the  court  to  plead  that  mes- 
sengers be  sent  to  cancel  the  order;  but  for 
one  excuse  and  another,  Mwanga  day  after 
day  refused  to  see  them  until  it  was  too  late, 
and  a  heathenish  crime  was  committed  at 
Uganda's  "back  door." 

In  the  land  of  Usoga,  on  the  eastern  bor- 
der of  Uganda,  Bishop  Hannington  for 
seven  weary  days  was  kept  a  prisoner  in 
a  dark,  filthy  hut.  On  the  eighth  day, 
Mwanga 's  messengers  arrived  and  bade  him 
come  forth  from  his  prison.  He  staggered 
out,  pale  and  worn  with  the  fever  which  had 
wrecked  his  body  during  the  week  of  awful 
suffering  in  prison.  Mr.  Ashe  tells  the 
story  as  he  heard  it  later  from  the  lips  of 
one  who  witnessed  the  dreadful  tragedy. 

"One  of  the  messengers  snatches  up  his 
Bible,"  he  says,  "another  his  portfolio,  and 
another  his  sketch-book ;  and  they  lead  him 
out,  telling  him  he  is  soon  to  join  his  men." 

"After  two  hours'  walking,  the  party 
reaches  an  open  space  beyond  the  banana 
groves,  where  at  last  Hannington  sees  his 

225 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


men,  not,  as  he  expected,  with  their  loads, 
nor  carrying  their  guns  and  full  of  spirits 
at  the  thought  of  once  more  being  on  the 
road,  but  all  bound,  some  with  a  heavy- 
forked  branch  round  their  necks,  and  many 
with  their  hands  tied  behind  their  backs. 
They  now  see  their  master  led  into  the  open 
where  they  are.  He  seems  wonderfully 
calm  and  turns  as  if  to  sit  down — but  this  is 
not  allowed.  A  gun  is  fired,  and  Hanning- 
ton's  guards  begin  to  strip  him  of  his  cloth- 
ing. He  is  quite  passive  in  their  hands. 
He  has  commended  his  soul  to  Him  who  sits 
above  kings.  'Tell  the  king,' — he  is  re- 
ported to  have  said, — 'that  I  die  for  Uganda. 
I  have  bought  this  road  with  my  life. ' 

"They  had  now  forced  him  to  his  knees. 
Then  the  spears  are  flung  into  that  heart 
which  had  overflowed  with  such  fervent 
love  for  his  murderers  and  their  race.  The 
warriors  with  a  wild  cry  now  spring  upon 
the  defenseless  porters,  and  soon  the  fright- 
ful butchery  is  accomplished;  and  then,  as 
if  half  fearing  what  they  had  done,  the 

226 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

army  of  the  Busoga  and  Waganda  murder- 
ers hurries  away,  leaving  the  dead  lying 
where  they  had  fallen.  Night  draws  her 
curtain  over  the  scene,  and  when  the  moon 
comes  out,  she  shines  peacefully  upon  the 
seeming  sleepers. ' ' 

For  several  weeks  after  the  tragedy  was 
past,  the  missionaries  in  Uganda  receiving 
conflicting  reports  about  what  had  hap- 
pened, lived  with  a  faint  hope  that  the 
bishop  was  still  alive.  If  he  had  been  mur- 
dered, they  expected  that  any  day  they  them- 
selves, like  their  bishop,  would  be  sum- 
moned forth  to  die;  yet  they  quietly  went 
about  their  usual  work  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  Although  the  missionaries  knew 
it  not,  day  after  day,  the  king  and  chiefs  as- 
sembled to  discuss  the  question  whether  or 
not  Mr.  Ashe,  Mr.  O 'Flaherty,  and  Mr. 
Mackay  should  be  killed.  At  last  the  dread 
decision  was  made,  Mwanga's  word  was 
given.     The  three  Englishmen  must  die. 

The  king's  chief  storekeeper,  however, 
being    a     Christian,     quietly     sent     word 

227 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


to  the  missionaries  suggesting  that  they 
send  a  present  to  the  king.  Nalumasi,  a 
Christian  princess,  one  of  Mwanga  's  sisters, 
also  sent  word  warning  them  that  if  ever 
they  needed  to  gain  the  good  will  of  Mwanga 
it  was  then.  The  Eoman  Catholic  priests 
also  sent  messengers  to  say  that  there  was 
no  longer  a  donbt  about  the  bishop's  mur- 
der, and  that  Mwanga  had  determined  to 
kill  Mr.  Ashe,  Mr.  O 'Flaherty,  and  Mr. 
Mackay,  too. 

So  the  missionaries  gathered  together 
about  twenty  loads  of  their  most  valuable 
possessions  and  sent  them  as  presents  to  the 
king,  the  katikiro,  and  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant chiefs.  The  next  morning  a  large 
band  of  pages  came  to  the  mission  with  the 
command  from  the  king  for  Mackay  to  go  at 
once  to  the  palace.  What  did  it  mean? 
Was  there  some  new  danger  to  face?  The 
missionaries  knelt  to  pray.  Then  manfully 
Mr.  Ashe  and  Mr.  Mackay  went  before  the 
king. 

The   conversation   opened  by  Mwanga 's 
228 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

saying:  "What  is  the  meaning  of  the  pres- 
ent you  sent  me?" 

"For  friendship,"  answered  Mackay. 

"Have  I  'eaten  Uganda'  only  to-day 
(Have  I  come  to  the  throne  to-day)  ?  Why 
give  it  to  me  now,  and  not  long  ago  % ' ' 

Some  talk  followed  concerning  a  gun 
Mackay  had  been  repairing.  Then  Mwanga 
returned  to  his  first  question.  "Well  now, 
the  present,  what  is  it  for?" 

"We  thought  you  were  angry  with  us,  be- 
cause when  we  came  to  see  you,  you  refused 
to  see  us,"  was  Mackay 's  reply. 

"Yes,"  broke  in  one  of  the  chiefs,  "they 
sent  me  a  present,  and  the  katikiro  also,  be- 
cause they  think  we  can  influence  the  king. 
They  think  we  want  to  kill  them,  and  they 
wish  to  redeem  their  lives.  What  danger 
are  they  in  %    Do  we  kill  guests  % ' ' 

Mr.  Mackay,  turning  to  him,  merely  said, 
"Why,  then,  did  you  send  back  to  say  your 
present  was  not  large  enough,  and  to  tell  us 
to  send  you  more?" 

At  this  the  others  smiled  a  little  and  the 
229 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


chief  had  nothing  more  to  say.    Yet  they 
all  began  to  rail  on  the  two  white  men. 

At  last  Mackay  said,  "Have  we  done 
wrong  to  give  the  king  a  present?"  It  was 
a  telling  question  and  again  they  were  si- 
lent. 

Then  Mr.  Ashe  spoke:  "You  all  know 
why  we  sent  it.  We  want  to  hear  about  our 
brother." 

"Who  told  }'ou  about  your  brother?" 
every  one  cried. 

"Does  not  all  Uganda  know  it?" 

"Oh,  do  all  Uganda  go  to  your  place?" 

Then  the  king,  turning  to  one  of  the 
chiefs,  said,  "Question  them  exceedingly." 

So  the  two  men  were  mercilessly  plied 
with  questions.  The  king  wanted  the  names 
of  the  men  who  had  told  them  of  the  plot. 
The  missionaries  refused  to  give  any  names. 
The  chiefs  grew  angry.  The  king  called  the 
white  men  "bagwagwa,"  the  most  insulting 
name  in  the  Luganda  language.  The  more 
quiet  the  missionaries  were,  the  more  angry 
grew  the  king  and  chiefs. 

230 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

"What  if  I  kill  you?"  cried  Mwanga, 
"What  would  Queeni  (the  Queen)  do  1  Was 
she  able  to  touch  Lukonge  or  Mirambo  when 
they  killed  white  men  ?  What  could  she  do, 
or  all  Europe  together?  How  could  they 
come — would  they  fly?" 

This  mocking  and  jeering  and  taunting 
continued  for  more  than  two  hours  until  the 
missionaries  were  thoroughly  worn  out. 

Mwanga  made  the  threat  that  he  would 
arrest  and  kill  the  white  men  if  any  Wa- 
ganda  were  found  on  their  premises, 
whether  the  white  men  knew  it  or  not,  and 
the  "readers"  also  would  lose  their  lives. 

Then  suddenly  he  called  an  attendant  and 
cried, ' '  Take  these  white  men  and  give  them 
two  cows  to  quiet  their  minds,"  and  with  a 
wave  of  his  hand  he  dismissed  the  court. 
Mr.  Mackay  and  Mr.  Ashe  returned  to  their 
home  thankful  to  God  that  he  had  given 
them  strength  to  be  true  to  him  in  the  midst 
of  such  trying  conditions. 

That  very  night,  regardless  of  Mwanga 's 
threat,  word  came  to  the  missionaries  from 

231 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


a  group  of  Christians  gathered  in  the  home 
of  Nua,  the  head  blacksmith  for  the  king, 
saying  that  five  persons  wanted  to  be  bap- 
tized. One  of  these  five  men  was  Gabunga, 
the  admiral  of  the  king's  fleet  of  canoes  on 
Victoria  Lake.  "  So  it  is,  and  ever  will  be, ' ' 
wrote  Mr.  Mackay,  "some  will  press  into 
the  kingdom  in  times  of  the  greatest  trial." 

For  about  six  months  there  was  a  lull  in 
the  storm.  At  this  time  of  quiet  Mr. 
O 'Flaherty  received  permission  from  the 
king  to  leave  the  country.  Worn  and 
broken  in  health  by  frequent  attacks  of  fe- 
ver, he  turned  his  face  toward  the  shores  of 
his  beloved  England.  While  his  vessel  sped 
on  its  way  northward,  he  breathed  his  last, 
and  his  body,  like  those  of  many  home- 
ward-bound voyagers  before  him,  found  its 
resting-place  in  the  ocean. 

Ever  since  Bishop  Hannington's  martyr- 
dom, Mwanga  had  acted  like  a  criminal  ever 
fearing  arrest.  He  was  too  proud  to  admit 
his  guilt,  yet  afraid  that  the  white  men  and 
their  followers  would  one  day  rob  him  of 

232 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

his  kingdom.  As  long  as  he  was  willing 
to  listen  to  some  show  of  reason,  the  fact 
that  the  number  of  Christians  had  grown  so 
large  restrained  him  from  ordering  their 
wholesale  massacre.  Indeed,  the  katikiro 
had  advised  Mwanga  to  kill  all  who  had 
learned  to  read ;  but  the  king  said  that  all  his 
pages,  guards,  and  servants  were  "readers," 
that  about  five  hundred  men  and  boys  and  as 
many  women  and  girls  went  to  the  English- 
men to  learn,  and  about  the  same  number  to 
the  Frenchmen.  If  he  killed  them  all  at 
once,  he  would  be  accused  of  killing  the 
whole  country ;  therefore,  he  would  kill  them 
a  few  at  a  time. 

A  number  of  events,  each  small  in  itself, 
served  to  stir  up  Mwanga 's  illtemper  until 
all  the  evil  of  the  boy-tyrant 's  nature  seemed 
to  break  loose  in  a  furious  passion  for  mur- 
der. One  bold  lad,  Balikudembe,  formerly 
a  pupil  of  Mackay's,  dared  to  accuse  his 
majesty  of  wrong-doing  in  killing  the 
bishop,  since  the  white  men  were  the  coun- 
try's friends. 

233 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


"This  fellow  has  insulted  me,"  angrily 
cried  Mwanga,  and  ordered  that  Baliku- 
dembe  be  burned  alive. 

The  executioner,  a  friend  of  the  boy, 
thought  to  delay  in  carrying  out  the  sen- 
tence; but  the  katikiro,  who  hated  Baliku- 
dembe  because  he  was  a  Christian,  sent  word 
to  the  executioner  to  kill  the  fellow  at  once, 
before  the  king  had  time  to  repent. 
Mwanga  did  repent  afterward,  and  sent 
word  to  make  the  boy  merely  a  pris- 
oner. But  it  was  too  late.  Brave  Baliku- 
dembe  had  already  gone  where  wicked 
rulers  cease  troubling. 

Other  events  helped  to  irritate  the  al- 
ready unhappy  king.  His  straw-built  hut, 
in  which  he  kept  his  stores  of  gunpowder, 
caught  fire,  and  a  high  wind  carried  the 
masses  of  blazing  grass  hither  and  yon 
among  the  other  royal  houses  of  the  enclos- 
ure until  his  entire  palace  grounds  had  be- 
come a  heap  of  ashes.  He  fled  to  the  house 
of  the  katikiro  only  to  have  it  shortly 
struck  by  lightning.    Mwanga,  crazed  with 

234 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

fear,  thought  that  the  god  of  lightning  was 
his  enemy  and  that  he  had  been  bewitched 
by  the  white  men.  Surely  they  had  set  fire 
to  his  stores  of  gunpowder,  so  that  when 
the  English  army  marched  against  his  capi- 
tal, he  would  have  nothing  with  which  to 
fight. 

About  this  time,  Mwanga  ordered  the  mis- 
sion boat  to  be  brought  to  a  certain  place; 
in  case  Mackay  obeyed  the  king,  the  execu- 
tioner was  ordered  to  be  in  waiting  to  put 
him  to  death.  For  once  even  the  katikiro 
proved  to  be  a  friend  of  the  white  man. 
Through  his  timely  warning,  Mackay  was 
enabled  to  escape  the  plot  of  the  king  and 
executioner. 

From  time  to  time  disturbing  reports 
reached  the  missionaries.  Now  it  was  the 
Uganda  Christians  who  were  to  be  seized; 
again  it  was  the  mission  property  which 
was  to  be  plundered;  sometimes  their  own 
lives  were  threatened.  Mackay  and  Ashe 
lived  and  worked  on  not  knowing  when  ru- 
mors might  become  realities. 

235 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


May  twenty-sixth,  1886,  was  bright  of  sky 
but  dark  of  deed.  Mr.  Ashe  with  a  company 
of  "readers"  about  him,  was  seated  on  the 
porch  at  the  back  of  the  mission  house. 
They  had  just  been  singing, 

"All  the  people  bow  before  Thee, 
Thou  the  Ruler  of  the  heavens," 

when  Mackay  appeared  suddenly.  Speak- 
ing in  English  to  Mr.  Ashe,  he  said,  "At 
last  it  is  really  true.  I  have  just  heard  that 
Mwanga  has  gone  mad  and  given  orders  to 
seize  all  the  Christians." 

"Escape  quickly  lest  they  search  our 
place,"  said  Mr.  Ashe  to  the  boys  in  Lu- 
ganda;  and  skipping  through  a  hole  in  the 
back  fence,  all  the  pupils  soon  disappeared. 
Scarcely  had  they  gone,  when  an  officer  of 
the  king  arrived  with  a  company  of  armed 
men  in  search  for  "readers,"  but  none  were 
found. 

One  of  the  Mwanga 's  own  sisters  had  been 
bold  enough  to  burn  up  her  magic  charms 
and    ancestral    relics.     "The    rebellion    is 

236 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 


spreading  even  into  my  own  household, ' ' 
thought  Mwanga,  "I  must  act  quickly. " 
Soon  by  his  command,  so  it  was  reported  to 
the  missionaries,  seventy  of  the  leading 
Christians  were  imprisoned. 

One  man,  Alexandro  by  name,  on  hearing 
that  his  fellow  Christians  were  being  ar- 
rested, went  boldly  to  the  king's  court  as 
usual.  "I  myself  am  a  Christian,"  was  his 
sturdy  reply  to  the  executioner's  question 
if  any  "readers"  were  hidden  in  his  enclos- 
ure. Upon  this  faithful  confession,  Alex- 
andro, too,  was  thrown  into  prison. 

Two  Christian  young  men,  one  Apolo 
Kagwa  by  name,  were  called  into  the  king's 
presence.  In  a  fit  of  madness,  Mwanga 
himself  attacked  one  of  them,  gashing  his 
body  fearfully  with  a  spear,  the  suffering 
man  then  being  hurried  off  to  the  execu- 
tioner. 

Turning  to  Apolo  Kagwa,  Mwanga  cried, 
"Are  you  a  reader?" 
"I  read,  my  lord,"  was  the  heroic  reply. 
"Then  I'll  teach  you  to  read!"  and  thus 
237 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


shouting,  the  furious  king,  with  spear  in 
hand,  wounded  and  bruised  the  body  of  the 
faithful  Christian.  Yet  Kagwa's  life  was 
spared. 

While  "readers"  were  being  hunted  like 
wild  beasts,  many  of  them  fled  to  distant 
provinces.  Some  refused  to  hide,  lest  their 
enemies  might  accuse  them  of  being  cow- 
ards. One  such  was  Roberto,  who  had  been 
accustomed  almost  daily  to  come  to  the  mis- 
sion. Mackay  knew  him  well,  since  to- 
gether they  had  made  several  trips  to  and 
from  the  southern  end  of  the  lake. 

As  Roberto  with  a  group  of  boys  about 
him  was  one  day  enjoying  a  quiet  prayer- 
meeting,  he  was  surprised  to  discover  two 
or  three  executioners  standing  outside  the 
door  of  his  hut.  Immediately,  all  Ms  boys 
except  one  bolted  through  the  reed  partition 
wall  and  escaped.  A  gun  was  leaning 
against  the  door,  and  seeing  this  the  execu- 
tioners hesitated  to  enter. 

i '  Do  not  be  afraid  that  I  will  shoot, ' '  said 
Roberto,  "come  in  and  take  me." 

238 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

Binding  him  and  the  one  boy  with  him, 
the  executioners  dragged  the  two  before  the 
king. 

"Do  you  read?"  asked  his  majesty. 

"Yes." 

"Take  him  and  roast  him,"  was  the  ty- 
rant's fiendish  reply. 

The  boy's  life  was  redeemed  by  friends 
who  gave  the  king  in  return  a  woman  and  a 
cow.  Roberto  was  kept  in  the  stocks  for  a 
few  days,  and  then  was  led  forth  to  his 
death.  His  bleeding  body,  mercilessly 
mangled  with  the  sword,  was  thrown  into 
the  flames. 

Another  who  refused  to  flee  was  Nua, 
head  blacksmith  to  the  king.  While  labor- 
ing with  Mackay  over  the  coffin  for  Mu- 
tesa's  mother,  he  had  become  a  friend  of 
the  white  man.  Later,  Nua  became  a  Chris- 
tian and  indeed  an  elder  in  the  Waganda 
church.  In  times  of  peril,  he  had  faithfully 
invited  the  Christians  to  gather  in  his  home. 
On  hearing  of  the  arrests,  he  hurried  his 
wife  and  children  and  two  or  three  Chris- 

239 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


tian  boys  who  had  been  living  with  him  off 
to  a  place  of  hiding.  For  himself,  he  re- 
fused to  flee,  and  of  course  was  arrested. 

While  bound  hand  and  foot  in  prison,  he 
pleaded  with  the  executioners  to  become 
Christians.  Noticing  among  those  who  were 
imprisoned  with  him  one  who  had  been  ar- 
rested for  cattle-stealing,  Nua  asked  the 
executioner  not  to  kill  the  cattle-stealer 
along  with  the  Christians.  The  matter  was 
reported  to  Mwanga,  and  the  cattle-stealer 
was  pardoned;  but  Nua  and  his  Christian 
companions  were  burned  alive. 

The  day  after  the  arrest  of  the  seventy 
Christians,  the  alarming  report  reached  the 
missionaries  that  their  houses  were  to  be 
plundered.  All  the  white  men's  Waganda 
servants  and  boys  were  immediately  dis- 
missed, and  Mr.  Mackay  and  Mr.  Ashe  were 
left  alone  in  their  enclosure.  To  them  it 
was  indeed  a  dark  day. 

"What  anguish  of  soul  we  have  experi- 
enced," wrote  Mr.  Mackay,  "no  words  can 
express.    Let  some  of  our  friends  at  home 

240 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

fancy  themselves  exchanging  places  with  us, 
and  seeing  their  friends,  with  whom  they 
yesterday  talked  and  ate  and  prayed,  to-day 
ruthlessly  seized  and  hacked  to  pieces  al- 
most before  their  eyes,  and  their  members 
left  lying  to  decay  by  the  roadside." 

"Something  must  be  done,"  they  said. 
"We  must  at  least  make  an  attempt  to  save 
the  lives  of  those  who  are  imprisoned  but 
not  yet  killed." 

So,  as  soon  as  possible,  Mackay  hurried 
to  Mwanga's  court.  On  being  presented  to 
the  king,  he  reminded  his  majesty  that,  for 
a  piece  of  work  the  missionary  had  previ- 
ously done,  Mwanga  had  promised  to  give 
him  anything  he  would  like. 

The  king  graciously  renewed  the  promise 
and  asked,  "What  do  you  want?" 

"I  want  the  lives  of  the  people  whom  you 
have  seized  and  not  yet  killed." 

Mwanga,  somewhat  taken  back  by  this  re- 
quest, tried  to  excuse  himself  from  keeping 
the  promise  by  saying,  "But  they  are  al- 
ready all  dead." 

241 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


"No,"  said  Mackay,  "there  are  many  still 
alive. ' ' 

"Well,  there  may  be  five  or  six  or  even 
ten,"  said  Mwanga,  "they  shall  not  be 
killed." 

Mackay  begged  that  the  executioner  be 
summoned  at  once  and  given  the  new  order. 
This  was  not  done,  however,  the  king  insist- 
ing that  he  had  already  given  orders  to 
spare  several,  and  all  the  others  were  dead. 

But  Mwanga 's  promises  were  worthless. 
Only  a  few  da}Ts  later,  thirty-two  of  the  im- 
prisoned Christians  were  killed,  having 
been  thrown  together  in  one  great  pile  and 
burned  alive.  After  the  deed  was  done,  the 
head  executioner  said  to  Mwanga  that  he 
had  never  before  killed  men  who  showed 
such  bravery  and  calmness  in  the  face  of 
death. 

"In  the  fire,  they  even  prayed  aloud  to 
God,"  he  said. 

During  the  weeks  and  months  which  fol- 
lowed, the  missionaries'  headquarters  were 
watched  by  the  executioners.    More  "read- 

242 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

ers"  were  captured  and  killed;  and  scores 
and  even  hundreds  went  into  hiding.  The 
missionaries  saw  little  of  their  Waganda 
friends.  Occasionally  they  would  be  awak- 
ened in  the  middle  of  the  night  by  one  or 
two  of  the  bolder  Christians  who  under  the 
cover  of  darkness  would  venture  out. 

Strange  to  say,  at  this  most  dangerous 
time,  some  even  asked  for  baptism.  One  of 
these  was  a  pupil  of  Roberto,  the  Chris- 
tian who  refused  to  protect  himself  by  us- 
ing his  gun.  Mr.  Ashe  being  the  preacher, 
the  boy  went  to  him  and  said,  "My  friend, 
I  wish  to  be  baptized." 

"Do  you  know  what  you  are  asking?" 
Mr.  Ashe  said  in  surprise. 

"I  know,  my  friend." 

"But  you  know  that  if  you  say  you  are  a 
Christian  they  will  kill  you?" 

Again  the  boy  answered  the  same  words, 
"I  know,  my  friend." 

"But  suppose  people  ask  you  if  you  are 
a  reader,  will  you  tell  a  lie  and  deny  it  and 
say 'No?'" 

243 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


"I  shall  confess,  my  friend." 

Mr.  Mackay  and  Mr.  Ashe,  having  known 
the  boy  for  some  time  and  believing  him  to 
be  a  true  Christian,  consented  to  his  bap- 
tism. 

At  three  o'clock  one  morning,  while  it  was 
still  very  dark,  Mr.  Ashe  was  awakened  by 
a  low  knocking  at  his  door.  Arising  and 
lighting  his  lamp,  he  recognized  almost  half 
a  dozen  Christian  men  standing  in  front  of 
the  house,  and  he  invited  them  in.  One  of 
them,  Samweli  by  name,  was  in  great  trou- 
ble and  had  come  to  ask  advice.  Since  he 
was  among  the  best  known  of  the  Chris- 
tians, he  had  been  hunted  most  carefully  by 
the  executioners.  Being  away  in  a  distant 
province,  gathering  tribute  for  the  king,  he 
had  escaped.  But  now  he  had  returned. 
His  companions  had  urged  him  to  flee,  but 
he  could  not  feel  that  it  was  right  for  him 
not  to  deliver  the  tribute  of  cowry-shells  to 
the  king;  yet  to  show  himself  at  the  palace 
would  mean  almost  certain  death.  What 
was  he  to  do? 

244 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

Mr.  Ashe's  advice  was  soon  given.  He 
said,  ' '  The  king  has  not  the  heart  of  a  man, 
but  of  a  wild  beast,  and  you  are  not  bound 
to  submit  yourself  to  one  who  is  so  vile  a 
murderer.  You  are  perfectly  justified  in 
forsaking  the  trust." 

They  stepped  over  to  Mr.  Mackay's  shop 
and  he,  too,  advised  Samweli  to  flee.  But 
the  heroic  Waganda  Christian  was  not  sat- 
isfied. For  some  time  he  sat  on  the  earthen 
floor  of  the  room  looking  much  troubled. 
Finally  he  asked  for  a  pencil  and  paper  and 
bent  over  as  if  to  write. 

"You  need  not  write;  but  tell  me  what 
you  think, ' '  said  Mr.  Ashe. 

Then,  looking  up,  he  said  to  the  mission- 
ary, "My  friend,  I  cannot  leave  the  things 
of  the  king." 

His  companions  began  to  try  to  show  him 
the  folly  of  his  decision,  but  Mr.  Ashe  said, 
"No,  he  is  right;  he  has  spoken  well;  he 
must  take  the  tribute." 

After  kneeling  together  in  prayer,  they 
planned  that   Samweli  should  deliver  the 

245 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


cowry-shells  to  the  appointed  chief  very 
early  in  the  morning,  and  perhaps  the  exe- 
cutioners would  not  yet  be  abroad  in  search 
of  Christians.  When  Samweli  said  good-by 
to  the  missionaries,  they  had  little  hope  of 
seeing  his  face  again.  How  thankful  they 
were  when  at  nightfall,  he  appeared  once 
more  at  the  mission,  happy  because  he  had 
done  his  duty,  even  though  at  the  risk  of 
life  itself. 

Late  one  night  in  June,  two  Christians, 
one  of  them  fleeing  for  the  third  time  for 
his  life,  visited  the  mission.  To  these  men, 
Mr.  Mackay  and  Mr.  Ashe  gave  a  letter 
which  they  had  written  for  circulation 
among  the  Christians  in  hiding.  Like  some 
of  Paul's  letters  to  his  persecuted  follow- 
ers, how  it  must  have  cheered  many  a  lonely 
convert !  It  read : 
"  People  op  Jesus  who  are  in  Uganda 
"Our  Friends: — We,  your  friends  and 
teachers,  write  to  you  to  send  you  words  of 
cheer  and  comfort,  which  we  have  taken 
from  the  Epistle  of  Peter,  the  apostle  of 

246 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 

Christ.  In  days  of  old,  Christians  were 
hated,  were  hunted,  were  driven  out,  and 
were  persecuted  for  Jesus'  sake;  and  thus 
it  is  to-day. 

"Our  beloved  brethren,  do  not  deny  our 
Lord  Jesus,  and  he  will  not  deny  you  on 
that  great  day  when  he  shall  come  with 
glory.  Remember  the  words  of  our  Sav- 
iour, how  he  told  his  disciples  not  to  fear 
men,  who  are  able  to  kill  only  the  body ;  but 
he  bade  them  to  fear  God,  who  is  able  to 
destroy  the  body  together  with  the  soul. 

"Do  not  cease  to  pray  exceedingly,  and 
to  pray  for  our  brothers  who  are  in  afflic- 
tion, and  for  those  who  do  not  know  God. 
May  God  give  you  his  Spirit  and  his  bless- 
ing !  May  he  deliver  you  out  of  all  your  af- 
flictions! May  he  give  you  entrance  to 
eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Sav- 
iour ! 

"Farewell.  We  are  the  white  men;  we 
are  your  brothers  indeed  who  have  written 
to  you." 

On  the  other  side  of  the  letter  was  writ- 
247 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


ten  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  First  Letter 
of  Peter,  from  the  twelfth  verse  to  the  end 
of  the  chapter. 

So  in  Uganda  the  native  Christians,  not 
long  since  degraded  heathen,  were  now  suf- 
fering torment  and  death  rather  than  deny 
their  Lord  and  Saviour.  In  all,  about  two 
hundred  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic 
converts  were  brought  to  a  cruel  martyr- 
dom, and  probably  more  than  that  number 
were  made  exiles  from  their  homes. 

It  was  in  like  manner  that  centuries  ago, 
in  the  days  of  Nero  at  Rome,  the  early 
Christians  suffered.  So  some  of  our  own 
forefathers  were  burned  at  the  stake.  So 
in  later  years  the  Christian  churches  in 
Madagascar,  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  Japan, 
and  China  have  added  to  the  noble  company 
of  martyrs. 

Like  the  faithful  heroes  told  of  in  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Hebrews,  they  were 
" tortured,  not  accepting  their  deliverance; 
that  they  might  obtain  a  better  resurrection : 
and    others    had    trial    of    mockings    and 

248 


STURDY  BLACK  CHRISTIANS 


scourgings,  yea,  moreover  of  bonds  and  im- 
prisonment: they  were  stoned,  they  were 
sawn  asunder,  they  were  tempted,  they  were 
slain  with  the  sword:  .  .  .  being  desti- 
tute, afflicted,  ill-treated,  (of  whom  the 
world  was  not  worthy),  wandering  in 
deserts  and  mountains  and  caves,  and  the 
holes  of  the  earth."  "But  now  they  desire 
a  better  country,  that  is,  a  heavenly :  where- 
fore God  is  not  ashamed  of  them,  to  be 
called  their  God;  for  he  hath  prepared  for 
them  a  city. ' ' 


249 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    WHITE    MAX    OF    WORK    LAYS    DOWN    HIS 
TOOLS 

/^VNCE  more  there  was  a  period  of  com- 
^^  parative  quiet  in  Uganda.  Another 
of  the  white  men  left  for  England.  In- 
deed, Mr.  Ashe  and  Mr.  Mackay  had  both 
asked  permission  to  go.  This  was  not  be- 
cause of  any  thought  of  abandoning  their 
work  nor  because  of  any  fear  of  death. 
But  it  was  thought  that  perhaps  through 
their  temporary  absence  the  persecutions 
of  the  Christians  might  cease.  Then  being 
again  quiet  in  mind,  Mwanga  might  with 
real  heartiness  invite  the  missionaries  to  re- 
turn to  his  capital. 

After  many  discussions  at  court,  his 
black  majesty  finally  consented  that  Mr. 
Ashe  should  leave,  but  not  so  Mr.  Mackay, 

250 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

for  whom  the  king  pretended  to  have  a 
most  remarkable  affection.  So  Mr.  Mackay 
bade  farewell  to  his  long-time  companion, 
and  for  nearly  a  year  held  the  fort  in 
Uganda  alone. 

Notwithstanding  the  edict  that  all  who 
dared  to  go  to  the  mission  would  be  put  to 
death,  large  numbers  of  "readers"  stole 
away  unnoticed  to  the  white  man's  house. 
Several  months  after  Mr.  Ashe  left,  Mr. 
Mackay  wrote: 

"For  a  couple  of  months  after  you  left  I 
was  having  a  regular  houseful  of  strangers 
every  evening.  The  tin  of  petroleum  ar- 
rived in  time,  and  with  it  I  could  make  a 
respectable  light,  so  that  the  library  became 
a  night-school.  Late,  late,  often  very  late, 
we  wound  up,  and  I  was  often  more  than 
exhausted — reading,  teaching,  giving  medi- 
cine, and  doing  other  work.  By  day  I  got, 
off  and  on,  some  translation  done." 

In  addition  to  his  teaching  and  doctoring, 
the  "white  man  of  work"  undertook  to  con- 
struct a  spinning-wheel  and  weaver's  loom 

251 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


so  that  the  Waganda  might  learn  to  spin 
and  to  weave  their  own  cloth. 

When  the  royal  mechanics  had  all  failed, 
Mackay  was  asked  to  mount  a  huge  flagstaff 
in  the  king's  enclosure.  Very  awkward 
helpers  they  were  who  aided  him,  and  it  was 
only  after  many  days  of  patient  labor  that 
the  pole  slipped  into  the  hole  dug  for  it,  and 
stood  up  tall  and  firm,  to  the  astonishment 
and  delight  of  the  king  and  chiefs. 

Whenever  time  could  be  spared,  Mackay 
labored  on  the  translation  and  printing  of 
the  Gospel  of  Matthew.  In  a  few  months 
the  first  edition  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
copies  came  from  the  press,  and  the  eager 
Christians  were  able  to  read  for  themselves 
the  precious  stories  of  the  Christ ; — his  com- 
ing as  a  babe  in  Bethlehem,  his  teachings  on 
the  Mount,  his  miracles,  his  parables,  and 
finally  his  sufferings,  death,  and  resurrec- 
tion. 

But  such  events  as  these  came  only  occa- 
sionally to  brighten  Mackay 's  life.  For  the 
most  part  the  shadows  far  outnumbered  the 

252 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

bright  spots  throughout  that  year  of  loneli- 
ness. Again  and  again  plots  were  laid  for 
his  life;  and  since  the  fickle  Mwanga  could 
never  be  trusted,  much  of  Mackay's  work 
had  to  be  done  in  secret.  In  dangers  oft 
and  trials  ever,  how  hard  it  must  have  been 
to  keep  brave  and  cheerful!  In  a  letter 
written  about  this  time  Mackay  said : 

"What  sadness  and  melancholy  comes 
over  me  at  times,  and  I  find  myself  shed- 
ding tears  like  a  child!  Then  those  won- 
derfully consoling  Psalms  send  a  thrill  of 
joy  into  my  whole  being. 

"I  have  not  the  slightest  desire  to  'es- 
cape, '  if  I  can  do  a  particle  of  good  by  stay- 
ing. My  desire  is  that  the  Lord  will  open 
the  way  for  the  mission  to  be  kept  up,  not 
abandoned.  Our  ship  is  in  port,  some 
twelve  miles  off,  and  possibly  I  might  make 
a  dash  for  it;  but  what  then'?  I  do  not  at 
present  see  that  I  am  warranted  in  seeking 
to  do  so.  Anything  may  happen  at  any  mo- 
ment, and  it  may  be  that  I  shall  be  led  to 
adopt  such  a  course;  but  hitherto  I  believe 

253 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


I  am  doing  right  in  quietly  going  on  with 
the  work.  My  earnest  heart-wish  is  simply 
to  cast  myself  on  the  Master,  and  say,  '  Thy 
will  be  done!'  " 

For  a  time  Mwanga  pretended  to  be  a 
Mohammedan,  and  ordered  all  his  pages  to 
read  the  Koran.  On  the  refusal  of  a  num- 
ber to  obey  his  orders,  Mwanga  complained 
that  all  those  who  read  with  the  white  men 
were  stubborn  and  compelled  him  to  be  ever 
killing  them,  so  that  people  would  call  him  a 
madman!  He  threatened  to  "kill  very 
many."  But  his  queenmother,  although  a 
heathen,  warned  him  against  putting  his 
pages  to  death;  since,  she  said,  in  a  few 
years  they  would  be  the  chief  strength  of 
his  country. 

Now  that  Mackay  was  alone,  his  old 
enemies,  the  Arabs,  redoubled  their  efforts 
to  drive  him  from  the  country.  Again  and 
again  they  slandered  his  character  before 
Mwanga.  When  a  letter,  written  in 
Arabic,  came  from  the  English  consul  in 
Zanzibar,  they  mistranslated  it  to  the  king, 

254 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 


so  that  it  read  that  the  consul  advised 
Mwanga  to  drive  Mackay  out  of  the  country 
at  once.  The  king  hesitated,  not  knowing 
which  to  believe,  the  Arabs  or  Mackay. 
Now,  he  seemed  to  favor  Mackay 's  leaving; 
again,  he  refused  his  permission.  The 
strain  of  uncertainty  lasted  several  weeks, 
but  Mackay  waited  in  patience. 

Finally  the  king  definitely  declared:  "I 
will  not  have  his  teaching  in  the  country 
while  I  live.  After  I  am  dead  the  people 
may  learn  to  read." 

Mackay  did  not  leave,  however,  until  he 
gained  a  promise  from  the  king  to  send  a 
native  messenger  along  with  him  in  the 
boat,  so  that,  on  the  return  trip  of  the  ship, 
another  Englishman  might  be  brought  to 
Uganda  to  take  Mackay 's  place.    t 

So  one  day  in  the  summer  of  1887, 
Mackay  bade  farewell  to  his  Uganda  home, 
and  to  the  great  heathen  capital  and  its 
king,  locked  up  the  mission  houses,  and 
started  for  the  port. 

Good-by  gifts  were  given  back  and  forth 
255 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


between  Mwanga,  the  chiefs,  and  Mackay; 
and  the  Waganda  Christians  called  to  have 
their  last  words  with  the  white  man.  For 
nine  years  he  had  been  to  some  of  them  a 
faithful  friend  and  father,  and  it  was  hard 
for  them  to  let  him  go. 

Not  long,  however,  were  the  persecuted 
Waganda  Christians  left  alone.  The  boat 
that  carried  Mr.  Mackay  to  the  southern 
end  of  the  lake  brought  Mr.  Gordon,  a 
nephew  of  Bishop  Hannington,  to  take  his 
place.  Mr.  Gordon  was  soon  joined  by  Mr. 
Walker,  and  these  two  brave  men  persist- 
ently kept  the  work  moving  forward. 

Within  about  a  year's  time  two  revolu- 
tions occurred  in  Uganda.  Mwanga 's 
cruelties  grew  so  loathsome  to  his  subjects 
that  they  arose  in  a  body  and  dethroned 
him,  placing  his  brother,  Kalema,  on  the 
throne  in  his  stead.  Under  the  new  mon- 
arch, Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant 
Christians  were  given  the  chief  offices  of 
the  kingdom,  and,  for  a  while,  " readers" 
nocked   to   the   mission   like   "  swarms   of 

256 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

bees."  The  jealousy  of  the  Arabs,  how- 
ever, was  not  long  in  being  stirred.  They 
headed  a  second  revolution.  A  new  king 
was  put  on  the  throne,  and  the  important 
chieftainships  given  to  Mohammedans. 

For  six  days  both  the  French  and  English 
missionaries  were  imprisoned  in  a  filthy  hut 
within  the  king's  enclosure.  The  furious 
Mohammedan  mob  robbed  the  Protestant 
mission  of  every  article  of  furniture,  beds, 
tables,  chairs,  book-cases,  boxes,  everything. 
''Every  book  was  torn  to  bits,"  and  every 
bottle  of  medicine  was  smashed  or  emptied 
of  its  contents.  Doors  were  wrenched  from 
their  hinges  and  carried  away,  and  the  mis- 
sion house  left  a  desolate  wreck. 

The  French  priests  and  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries were  together  put  on  board  the 
white  man's  ship,  no  food,  almost  no  cloth- 
ing, and  no  bedding  being  allowed  for  their 
voyage  to  the  southern  end  of  the  lake. 
Mr.  Walker  was  even  robbed  of  his  hat, 
coat,  and  trousers  before  starting,  and  the 
only  two  books  he  had  saved,  his  New  Tes- 

257 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


tament  and  prayer-book,  were  snatched 
from  him  and  thrown  into  the  lake. 

"The  captain  carried  us  on  board,"  wrote 
Mr.  Gordon,  "and  we  heard  the  voice  of  the 
officer  behind  us.  He  was  giving  us 
Uganda's  parting  message.  'Let  no  white 
man  come  to  Uganda  for  the  space  of  two 
years.  We  do  not  want  to  see  Mackay's 
boat  in  Uganda  waters  for  a  long  time  to 
come.  "We  do  not  want  to  see  a  white 
teacher  back  again  in  Uganda  until  we  have 
converted  the  whole  of  Uganda  to  the  Mo- 
hammedan faith '. ' ' 

While  revolutions  and  fanatical  out- 
bursts were  taking  place  in  Uganda, 
Mackay  was  beginning  missionary  work 
anew  at  a  place  called  Usambiro,  near  the 
southern  shore  of  Victoria  Lake. 

About  seventy  miles  to  the  eastward,  a 
wretched  fugitive,  having  escaped  from 
Uganda  in  a  canoe  with  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
companions,  was  the  cruel,  despised  Mwan- 
ga.  Regardless  of  the  unspeakable  wrongs 
this  tyrant  had  committed  against  him  and 

258 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

against  so  many  whom  he  loved,  the  earnest, 
forgiving  missionary  now  wrote  and  offered 
the  ruined  king  a  refuge  with  him  in  Usam- 
biro. 

"  Murderer  and  persecutor  as  he  has 
been,"  wrote  Mr.  Mackay,  "I  yet  have  not 
the  faintest  doubt  that  it  becomes  us  to  do 
everything  in  our  power  to  return  him  good 
for  evil." 

Mwanga,  fearing  the  Arabs,  felt  at  the 
time  unable  to  escape.  He  implored 
Mackay  to  come  to  him  to  deliver  him,  but 
this  the  missionary  could  not  do.  Some 
months  later,  Mwanga  fled  to  the  Catholic 
mission  where  he  was  soon  baptized.  By  a 
third  revolution  in  Uganda,  he  was  later 
restored  to  his  throne,  and  the  chieftain- 
ships were  divided  equally  between  the 
Christians  and  Arabs;  but  Mwanga  was  as 
Samson  with  his  hair  shorn.  Never  again 
did  he  gain  his  old  power.  He  became  little 
more  than  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  his 
chiefs,  and  at  his  death  no  one  could  say 
that  he  had  ever  shown  any  certain  signs 

259 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


that  he  had  become  a  real  heart-Christian. 

In  the  meantime,  what  was  Mackay  doing 
at  Usambiro?  When  the  Waganda  Chris- 
tians were  exiled  from  their  country,  some 
twenty-five  of  them  fled  to  Mackay.  With 
their  assistance,  he  built  a  neat  five-room 
house  for  himself  and  the  two  or  three  other 
white  men  who  sometimes  were  with  him. 
Workshops,  houses  for  his  boys,  buildings 
for  his  chickens,  goats,  and  cattle,  and  .a 
garden  where  he  could  raise  vegetables  were 
other  results  of  their  industry.  Finally, 
the  entire  grounds,  when  enclosed  by  a  neat 
grass  fence,  became  an  attractive  homelike 
spot  in  the  midst  of  a  barren,  dry,  and  tree- 
less waste. 

Even  when  driven  from  Uganda,  Mackay 
did  not  cease  to  toil  for  the  land  he  had  long 
since  called  his  own.  He  directed  his  ex- 
iled Christians  in  the  use  of  the  printing- 
press,  and  many  pages  of  Scripture  verses, 
prayers,  and  hymns  from  time  to  time  were 
sent  to  Uganda.  Then,  too,  with  the  assist- 
ance  of  the  more   intelligent   among  the 

260 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

Christians,  he  began  the  translation  of  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  John. 

For  years  it  had  been  his  ambition  to 
build  a  good  steam  launch  for  the  use  of 
the  missionaries  on  Victoria  Lake.  Indeed, 
on  first  coming  to  Africa  he  brought  with 
him  a  steam-boiler  and  engine,  but  he  had 
never  succeeded  in  gaining  Mutesa's  or 
Mwanga's  permission  to  build  the  boat. 
Now,  at  last  he  was  able  to  begin.  Writing 
home,  he  said: 

"I  have  my  hands  full,  preparing  to 
build  our  new  boat.  I  have  cut  the  timber 
some  twenty  miles  distant,  and  have  carried 
it  here.  You  will  be  probably  disgusted  at 
hearing  that  I  am  busy  just  now  making 
bricks  to  build  a  house  in  which  to  build  the 
vessel.  Within  the  last  fortnight  we  have 
made  some  ten  thousand.  That  is  doubt- 
less poor  work  to  be  occupied  with  in  the 
mission  field,  but  it  must  be  done ;  and  even 
in  such  a  humble  occupation  I  hope  the 
good  Lord  will  not  withhold  his  blessing. 
Mission  boats  unfortunately  do  not  grow 

261 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


of  themselves — they  have  to  be  built,  every 
inch  of  them.  But  trees  have  been  growing 
for  ages,  of  the  Lord's  planting;  and  as  we 
fell  them,  I  like  to  think  that  he  made  them 
grow  for  this  purpose." 

A  little  later  he  wrote  again:  "I  have 
just  received  seventy  loads  of  rivets,  fit- 
tings, rope,  paint,  and  other  material,  for 
this  vessel,  for  which  I  am  collecting  the 
needed  timber.  Some  time  ago  I  wrote  you 
of  my  felling  trees  in  the  forest  some  ten  to 
twenty  miles  distant.  The  problem  then 
was  to  have  these  conveyed  to  this  station. 
I  found  that  the  logs  were  too  heavy  either 
to  drag  or  to  have  carried  by  all  the  men  I 
could  muster.  I  therefore  set  to  work  and 
made  a  strong  four-wheeled  wagon  with 
which  to  fetch  the  logs  entire  here.  This 
has  proved  quite  a  success,  and  already  we 
have  dragged  a  log  weighing  a  ton  and  a 
half  to  this  place  with  no  difficulty.  It  is 
the  first  wheeled  vehicle  ever  seen  in  this 
region  since  the  world  began,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  an  iron  wheelbarrow  which  was 

262 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

used  in  the  building  of  the  Suez  Canal,  and 
was  shipped  over  here.  This  wheelbarrow 
has  proved  a  marvel  to  the  natives ;  but  the 
ease  with  which  our  wagon  rolls  along  with 
a  large  log  on  the  top  of  it,  is  a  far  greater 
wonder  still." 

It  was  in  August,  1889,  the  last  summer 
of  Mackav's  life.  Mr.  Stanley  happened  to 
be  returning  to  the  coast,  having  rescued  an 
English  governor  who  had  long  been  held  a 
prisoner  in  Central  Africa.  Passing  by 
Mackav's  mission,  he  and  his  company  re- 
mained with  the  missionary  nearly  a  month. 
Stanley's  story  of  his  visit  gives  a  picture 
of  the  kind  of  life  Mackay  was  living. 

"The  next  day,"  says  Mr.  Stanley,  "hav- 
ing already  sent  messages  ahead,  that  we 
might  not  take  Mr.  Mackay  by  surprise,  we 
arrived  in  view  of  the  English  mission.  It 
was  built  in  the  middle  of  what  appeared  to 
be  no  better  than  a  gray  waste.  The 
ground  gently  sloped  from  curious  heaps  of 
big  boulders,  or  enormous  blocks  thrown 
higgelecty-piggledy  to  the  height  of  a  respec- 

263 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


table  hill,  down  to  a  marshy  flat,  green  with 
its  dense  crop  of  papyrus.  Beyond  this  we 
saw  a  gleam  of  a  line  of  water,  produced 
from  an  inlet  of  Victoria  Lake.  We  were 
approaching  the  mission  by  a  wagon  track, 
and  presently  we  came  to  the  wagon  itself, 
a  simple  thing  of  wooden  wheels,  for  carry- 
ing timber  for  building.  There  was  not  a 
green  thing  in  view,  except  in  the  marsh; 
grass  all  dead,  trees  either  shrunk,  with- 
ered, or  dead, — at  least  there  was  not  the 
promise  of  a  bud  anywhere,  which  of  course 
was  entirely  due  to  the  dry  season. 

"When  we  were  about  half  a  mile  off, 
a  gentleman  of  small  stature,  with  brown 
hair,  dressed  in  white  linen  and  a  gray  hat, 
advanced  to  meet  us. 

"  'And  so  you  are  Mr.  Mackay  ?  Mwanga 
did  not  get  you  then,  this  time  ?  What  ex- 
periences you  must  have  had  with  that  man ! 
But  you  look  so  well,  one  would  say  you  had 
been  to  England  lately.' 

"  'Oh,  no;  this  is  my  twelfth  year. 
Mwanga  permitted  me  to  leave,  and  the 

264 


Talking  Tins.  We  Entered  the  Circle  of  Tali,  Poles' 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

Rev.  Cyril  Gordon  took  my  place;  but  not 
for  long,  since  they  were  all  shortly  after 
expelled  from  Uganda.'' 

"Talking  thus,  we  entered  the  circle  of 
tall  poles,  within  which  the  mission  station 
was  built.  There  were  signs  of  labor,  and 
constant  unwearying  patience  and  sweating 
under  a  hot  sun.  We  saw  that  Mackay  was 
determined  to  do  something  to  keep  the 
mind  employed,  and  never  to  let  idleness 
find  him  with  folded  hands  brooding  over 
the  unloveliness. 

"There  was  a  big,  solid  workshop  in  the 
yard,  filled  with  machinery  and  tools,  a 
launch's  boiler  was  being  prepared  by  the 
blacksmiths,  a  big  canoe  was  outside  repair- 
ing; there  were  sawpits  and  large  logs  of 
hard  timber;  there  were  great  stacks  of 
palisade  poles;  in  the  corner  of  an  outer 
yard  was  a  cattle-fold  and  a  goat-pen,  fowls 
by  the  score  pecked  at  minute  grains; 
and  out  of  the  European  quarter  there 
trooped  out  a  number  of  little  boys  and 
big  boys,  looking  uncommonly   sleek  and 

265 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


happy;  and  quiet  laborers  came  up  to  bid 
us,  with  hats  off,  i  Good  morning ! ' 

"I  was  ushered  into  the  room  of  a  sub- 
stantial clay  structure,  the  walls  about  two 
feet  thick,  evenly  plastered,  and  garnished 
with  missionary  pictures. 

"  There  were  four  separate  ranges  of 
shelves  filled  with  choice,  useful  books. 
'  Allah  ho  Akbar,'  replied  Hassan,  his  Zan- 
zibar head-man,  to  me;  'books!  Mackay  has 
thousands  of  books,  in  the  dining-room,  bed- 
room, the  church,  everywhere.  Books!  ah, 
loads  upon  loads  of  them!'  And  while  I 
was  sipping  real  coffee,  and  eating  home- 
made bread  and  butter  for  the  first  time  for 
thirty  months,  I  thoroughly  sympathized 
with  Mackay 's  love  of  books.  It  becomes 
quite  clear  why,  among  so  many  books  and 
children  and  out-door  work,  Mackay  cannot 
find  leisure  to  brood  and  think  of  being 
lonely.  He  has  no  time  to  fret  and  groan 
and  weep,  and  God  knows  if  ever  man  had 
reason  to  be  doleful  and  lonely  and  sad, 
Mackay   had,   when,   after  murdering  his 

266 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

bishop,  and  burning  his  pupils,  and  strang- 
ling his  converts,  and  clubbing  to  death  his 
dark  friends,  Mwanga  turned  his  e}Te  of 
death  on  him.  And  yet  the  little  man  met 
it  with  calm  blue  eyes  that  never  winked. 
It  is  worth  going  a  long  journey  to  see  one 
man  •  of  this  kind,  working  day  after  day 
for  twelve  hours  bravely,  and  without  a  syl- 
lable of  complaint  or  a  moan,  and  to  hear 
him  lead  his  little  flock  in  singing  and 
prayer  to  show  forth  God's  kindness  in  the 
morning,  and  his  faithfulness  every  night." 

Stanley  and  his  officers  urged  Mackay  to 
return  home  with  them;  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  secretaries,  time  after  time, 
had  invited  him  to  return  to  England;  his 
friends  wrote  letters  begging  him  to  come 
home  for  a  rest;  but  the  faithful  Christian 
soldier  refused  to  leave  his  post  until  more 
men  were  sent  to  carry  on  the  work  in  his 
absence. 

At  last,  only  a  few  months  later,  his  sum- 
mons to  rest  came  from  his  Lord  in  heaven. 
His  only  white  companion  in  Usambiro,  Mr, 

267 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


Deekes,  was  preparing  to  return  to  England 
because  of  ill  health.  The  day  of  his  de- 
parture came.  He  and  his  men  had  risen 
early  and  all  the  packing  which  was  still  to 
be  done  was  completed  by  sunrise,  and  they 
were  ready  to  start  on  the  long  march  to  the 
coast. 

But  where  was  Mr.  Mackay  %  Could  it  be 
that  he  was  sleeping  while  the  others  within 
the  enclosure  were  up  and  busy  helping  the 
party  get  a  good  start  before  the  scorching 
sun  compelled  them  to  halt?  Mr.  Mackay 
had  worked  hard  the  day  before  and  per- 
haps he  was  resting  unusually  soundly. 
Expecting  to  say  good-by  to  his  faithful 
friend,  Mr.  Deekes  entered  Mackay 's  room. 
When  he  returned  to  his  men,  he  dismissed 
them  and  ordered  all  preparations  for  the 
march  to  cease,  for  Mackay  was  lying  on 
his  bed  burning  with  fever. 

During  the  whole  day  his  Waganda  boys 
with  solemn,  questioning  faces  flitted 
quietly  about,  doing  their  necessary  duties. 
No  doctor  was  near.    Mr.  Deekes  himself 

268 


HE  LAYS  DOWN  HIS  TOOLS 

was  weak  and  could  do  little.  The  care  of 
the  sick  missionary  was  left  largely  to  un- 
trained Waganda  Christians  who  did  the 
best  they  knew  to  cool  his  fevered  brow. 
During  the  next  four  days  Mr.  Mackay,  in 
his  delirium,  knew  not  the  loving  black 
nurses  who,  in  their  simple  way  were  doing 
their  utmost  to  win  their  beloved  teacher 
back  to  life ;  but  his  spirit  would  not  be  de- 
tained. His  Master  called,  "  Enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord,"  and  Alexander 
Mackay  was  gone. 

"I  had  a  coffin  made  of  the  wood  he  had 
cut  for  the  boat,"  wrote  Mr.  Deekes,  "and 
at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  on  Sunday 
I  buried  him  by  the  side  of  the  late  Bishop 
Parker.  The  Waganda  Christians  and  the 
boys  of  the  village  stood  around  the  grave, 
and  I  began  to  read  the  burial  service,  but 
broke  down  with  grief  and  weakness.  The 
boys  and  Waganda  Christians  sang  the 
hymn,  'All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name,' 
in  Luganda,  and  we  returned  to  the  house, 
never  to  forget  that  day. ' ' 

269 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


So  it  was  that  Africa  lost  the  man  whom 
Stanley  called  "the  best  missionary  since 
Livingstone." 


270 


DID  IT  PAY? 

ALEXANDER  MACKAY  was  only 
forty-one  years  of  age  when  he  was 
called  to  lay  aside  his  life-work.  When  a 
young  man  he  might  have  turned  a  deaf  ear 
to  Stanley's  urgent  call  from  Central  Africa 
and  remained  in  merry  England,  where 
fever  is  as  little  to  be  feared  as  are  lions  and 
rhinoceri.  Had  he  done  so,  who  knows  but 
that  he  might  have  lived  out  a  long  life  of 
twice  forty-one  years. 

He  might  have  continued  his  work  in 
Germany,  perhaps  coming  to  be  a  famous 
engineer  or  inventor.  Having  been  offered 
a  position  with  good  opportunities  for  pro- 
motion in  the  service  of  the  Imperial  East 
Africa  Company,  he  might  have  become  a 
prosperous  business  man.  General  Gordon 
had  wanted  hiin  as  an  important  officer  in 

271 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


his  army  in  Egypt.  Had  lie  accepted  the 
offer,  perhaps  he  might  have  ended  his  life 
as  one  of  Great  Britain's  well-known  com- 
manders. Instead,  he  died  in  the  prime  of 
life — a  missionary  in  remote  Central 
Africa. 

Fourteen  years  in  Africa  had  brought  to 
Mr.  Mackay  the  knottiest  of  problems  and 
hardships  untold.  During  all  this  time, 
luxury  was  far  from  him,  and  often  he 
lacked  even  what  we  regard  as  common 
comforts.  No  mother  or  sister  or  wife  was 
at  his  side  to  brighten  his  simple  home. 
Late  and  early,  he  toiled,  ofttimes  at  tasks 
for  which  he  had  no  special  liking.  Many 
of  those  whom  he  had  so  patiently  taught 
and  whom  he  had  come  to  love  as  his  own 
brothers,  he  saw  sent  to  cruel  torture  and 
death.  For  months  at  a  time  he  lived  not 
knowing  when  a  wicked  monarch  might  call 
for  his  own  life. 

His  has  not  been  the  only  promising  life 
laid  down  for  Uganda.  In  1876,  seven 
others  besides  Mackay  had  left  their  homes 

272 


DID  IT  PAY? 


in  answer  to  King  Mutesa's  plea.  During 
the  years  since  then,  scores  of  other  young 
men  and  even  some  women,  just  as  earnest 
and  devoted  to  the  work  and  to  their  Lord 
as  Mackay,  have  started  for  the  shores  of 
Victoria  Lake.  Some  have  died  on  the 
way ;  others  have  lived  for  only  a  short  time 
in  the  land  of  their  choice;  and  a  few  have 
survived  to  do  many  years  of  patient  serv- 
ice. But  lias  it  all  been  worth  while  *?  Did 
it  pay? 

It  was  a  letter  from  a  newspaper  corre- 
spondent published  in  the  London  Tele- 
graph that  first  led  Christian  teachers  to 
give  their  lives  for  Uganda.  Twenty-nine 
years  later  another  newspaper  correspond- 
ent wrote  a  letter  from  Uganda's  capital, 
and  this  was  published  in  the  London  Times 
for  August  11,  1904.  Unlike  Stanley,  this 
second  newspaper  man  had  in  a  few  days 
traveled  by  railroad  from  the  east  coast  of 
Africa  to  Victoria  Lake.  On  board  a  beau- 
tiful modern  lake  steamer,  he  had  sailed  to 
Uganda's  port.    He  found  a  people  gov- 

273 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


erned  by  a  Christian  king  whose  noble  prime 
minister  was  Apolo  Kagwa,  once  persecuted, 
and  now  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  Waganda 
Christian  Church.  He  found  a  country  un- 
der the  protection  of  the  English  crown, 
ruled  by  just  laws,  and  a  nation  wholly 
without  slaves.  He  found  that  only  a  few 
of  its  citizens  still  brought  their  offerings 
to  the  heathen  spirits,  and  those  few  seemed 
half  ashamed  to  be  thought  of  as  believers 
in  the  wizards.  Thousands  of  people,  he 
found,  belonged  to  the  churches  which  had 
been  organized  all  over  the  country. 

It  was  one  day  the  privilege  of  this  news- 
paper correspondent  to  see  more  than  five 
thousand  of  these  Waganda  Christians 
gathered  at  the  capital.  His  letter  tells  the 
story  of  the  great  occasion. 

"On  the  summit  of  Kamirembe  has  stood 
for  many  years  the  principal  Christian 
church  of  Uganda,  a  large  building,  the 
grass  roof  of  which  was  supported  by  a 
very  forest  of  palm  poles.  This  eventually 
became  unsafe,  and  has  lately  been  replaced 

274 


DID  IT  PAY? 


by  a  more  permanent  and  really  beautiful 
building,  which  reflects  great  credit  on  Mr. 
Borup,  an  engineer  missionary.  He  has 
taught  the  Waganda  to  make  bricks,  has  in- 
structed young  men  in  carpentry  and 
other  handicrafts,  and  has  superintended 
this  their  first  building  on  a  large  scale. 
The  walls  and  two  rows  of  massive  columns 
are  built  of  sun-dried  bricks,  while  those 
used  for  the  foundations  have  been  burnt  in 
a  kiln.  The  roof,  neatly  thatched  with  long 
grass,  rises  over  the  transepts  into  three 
peaks.  But  the  most  remarkable  features 
in  the  building  are  the  beautiful  reed-work 
which  covers  the  ceiling  and  the  palm  stems 
that  serve  as  beams  and  rafters. 

"The  great  event  in  the  cajntal  recently 
has  been  the  consecration  of  this  cathedral 
by  Bishop  Tucker.  At  five  in  the  morning 
of  the  twenty-first  of  June,  people  were  be- 
ginning to  assemble  in  the  open  space 
around  the  church.  The  service  was  to  be- 
gin at  nine  o'clock,  but  long  before  that  hour 
every  available  space  had  been  filled  and  the 

275 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


great  building  was  surrounded  by  a  large 
crowd  of  disappointed  but  cheerful  and  or- 
derly people  who  found  it  impossible  to  gain 
admission. 

"The  seats  were  a  few  reserved  for  Eu- 
ropeans under  the  central  dome  and  those 
kept  for  the  clergy  in  the  chancel;  all  the 
rest  of  the  floor  space,  with  the  exception  of 
the  central  aisle  and  well-kept  passages  to 
the  different  doorways,  was  completely  cov- 
ered by  rows  of  Waganda  seated  on  the 
ground,  or  on  skins  and  mats  which  many 
had  brought  with  them.    No  undue  crowd- 
ing had  been  allowed ;  but  by  this  method  of 
seating,  any  given  space  will  accommodate 
a   considerably   larger   number   of   people 
than  it  takes  where  room  has  to  be  found  for 
chairs  or  benches.    Looking  down  from  the 
chancel,  the  eye  wandered  over  a  sea  of  dark 
but  by  no  means  unattractive  faces,  and  one 
noticed  a  marked  contrast  between  the  two 
sides  of  the  church,  for  to  the  right  sat  the 
men  in  their  clean,  long  white  robes,  and  to 
the  left  the  women,  clad  for  the  most  part  in 

276 


DID  IT  PAY? 


the  rich  brown  bark  cloth  so  characteristic 
of  Uganda. " 

King  Daudi  Chwa,  Apolo  Kagwa,  the 
prime  minister,  and  about  fifty  missionaries 
and  native  pastors  from  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom  and  a  vast  congregation  of  3,500 
within  the  cathedral  listened  reverently 
through  the  entire  services. 

"The  building  of  the  cathedral  had  in- 
volved a  considerable  drain  upon  the  re- 
sources of  the  people,  and  there  still  re- 
mained a  debt  of  more  than  2,000  rupees 
[$650].  To  meet  this  was  the  object  of  the 
collection  taken  up  toward  the  end  of  the 
proceedings,  and  a  most  interesting  part  of 
the  ceremony  it  proved  to  be.  Quite  a  little 
army  of  men  were  employed  going  to  and 
fro  with  large  bags  and  cloths,  and  they  re- 
turned again  and  again  to  the  chancel 
heavily  laden  with  strings  of  cowry-shells, 
besides  the  more  regular  coinage  introduced 
with  British  rule.  These  were  received  by 
the  clergy  in  the  basin-shaped  baskets  that 
figure  largely  in  native  life.    Many  brought 

277 


WHITE  MAN  OF  WORK 


offerings  in  kind,  and  the  English  section  of 
the   congregation   could  not  repress   their 
smiles  when  the  first  chicken  was  solemnly 
carried  up  the  aisle  and  deposited  at  the 
foot  of  the  table,  followed  almost  immedi- 
ately by  a  couple  of  goats  which  showed  a 
marked  objection  to  being  dragged  back  and 
removed  by  a  side  door.    It  then  appeared 
that  gifts  were  flowing  in,  not  only  from 
the  congregation  proper,  but  from  the  yet 
greater  crowd  which  had  failed  to  gain  ad- 
mission and  thronged  around  the  building 
outside  all  through  the  service.    Load  after 
load  of  offerings  came  through  the  doors, 
and  many  were  the  gifts  that  did  not  ap- 
pear within.     Others  arrived  too  late  for 
the  occasion,  and  the  amount  of  the  collec- 
tion went  on  growing  for  days  afterward. 
The  latest  figures  I  could  obtain  were  as  fol- 
lows:     1,613     rupees      [$538],     including 
about   90,000  shells,   and  36   bullocks   and 
cows,  23  goats,  31  fowls,  and  154  eggs.     The 
result  of  this  collection  more  than  wiped  off 
the  debt  on  the  church. 

278 


Load  after  Load  of  Offerings  Came  Through  the  Doors" 


DID  IT  PAY? 


"Altogether  the  scene  described  was 
never  to  be  forgotten  by  an  English  visitor. 
Less  than  thirty  years  ago,  Stanley  gave  to 
the  king  of  Uganda  his  first  lesson  in  the 
truths  of  Christianty,  and  then  appealed  for 
missionaries  to  carry  on  the  work.  He 
lived  to  see  a  truly  marvelous  change  ef- 
fected by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  which 
is  to-day  being  carried  by  native  teachers 
and  preachers  far  into  the  surrounding 
countries;  and  now  within  a  few  weeks  of 
his  death  a  gathering  of  over  5,000  Waganda 
for  the  consecration  of  a  cathedral  in  Mu- 
tesa's  capital  witnesses  to  the  force  with 
which  the  Christian  message  can  appeal  to 
an  intelligent  people  who  have  heard  it  for 
the  first  time  in  the  present  generation." 

Was  it  all  worth  while?  Did  it  pay? 
Were  the  lives  wasted  or  well  invested  which 
have  made  possible  such  changes  in  a  coun- 
try once  heathen?  "Whosoever,"  said 
Jesus,  "would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and 
whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake  and 
the  gospel's  shall  save  it." 

279 


INDEX 


Africa,  2,  31,39,83,191,218; 
Central,    27,    30,    58,    224, 

263,    272; 
East,  31,  224,  271; 
South,  58 
African, 

animals,  6,  8,  20,  40,  63; 

beer,    113,    133; 

birds    and    insects,    39,    51, 

61,  64,  174; 
boys,  87,  155-158; 
carpenter,    37 ; 
chiefs,    see    Chiefs; 
diseases,   42,    156,    see   also 

Fever; 
drums,    see    tom-toms    be- 
low; 
flowers  and  plants,  39  j 
huts,   21,   89,   90; 
jungles,  see  Jungles; 
mason,    37 ; 
missions,       see       Missions, 

African; 
money,   12,  33,   34; 
porters,     see     Baggage-car- 
riers; 
singing,  55; 


soldiers,  10,  37,  74,  75,  105, 

107,  204; 
tom-toms,  7,  20,  45,  77,  79, 

116,   132,   179 
villages,   see  Villages; 
wives,  20,  81,  96,  109,  159, 
164-168 
Alexandro,  237 
Allah,    139,    1462   216; 
Animals,  see  African  animals 
American  axes,  53 
Apolo  Kagwa,  237,  238,  274, 

277 
Arabian,  Arabs,  12,  15-34, 
74-892  101-111,  124,140- 
152,  159,  196,  198,  254, 
257 
Ashe,  Mr.,  195,  200,  206-214, 
225-251 

Bagamoyo,    36 
Baggage-carriers,    34-38,    43, 

49-52 
Balikudembe,  233,  234 
Bananas,   90,   91,   105 
Baptism,   baptisms,    108,   109, 

155,  243 


281 


INDEX 


Baraza,   802   85,   96,   98,    108, 

124 
Bark   cloth,   20,   32,    74,    108, 

114,   166,   181,  277 
Bead  money,  beads,   12,  32,  34 
Bellows,   32,  93 
Bible,   4,    15-19,    71,    77,    78, 

81,    104,    108,    120,    123, 

128,    148,    159,   170,   221, 

225,  246-253,   260 
Birds,   see  African   birds 
Board  books,    15 
Bolsters  of  baggage,   35-37 
Books,   266; 

destroyed,  257 
Borup,  Mr.,  275 
Boys,   see  African   boys 
Brass  wire,  see  Wire 
Bridges,    bridge-building,    55, 

57,  58 
Burial,    180,    190-192 
of  Philipo,  166 
of    queen    Namasole,     179*- 

190 
Burning    of    Christians,    216, 
217,   234,   239-242 

Calico,    12,  40,  41,   181-189 
Camps,  44,  45,  52,  59,  70,  71 
Canoes,  6,  71,  258,  265 
Capital  cities,  72,  73,  85,  115, 

207,  274 
Caps,  red,  32,  34,  74,   76 
Caravans,  3,  36-46,  50 


Carts,    cart-barge,    58-68,    82, 

84 
Cathedral,   275-279 
Catholic,  Catholics,   104,  228, 

248 
Cattle,   6,    87,    116,    146,   147, 

173,    192,  260 
Chambarango,   16 
Charms,    113,    114,    156,    160, 

161,   179,   236 
Chiefs,   9,   20,   43-45,    57,   72, 

76,    79,    89,   93,    98,    106, 

107,  122,  124,  159,  169, 
178,  179,  197,  199,  228- 
230 

Christ,  see  Jesus  Christ 
Christian,  boys  or  lads,   154- 
163,     204-208,     212-219, 
233,  265; 
chiefs,   213,   232; 
girls,   233; 
religion,     14-19,     104,    116, 

129,  135,  146; 
teachings,  98-104 
Christians,  5,  27,  28,  95,  104, 

108,  153-169,  233,  248, 
256 

Christmas,   101,   111,   190 
Church     Missionary     Society, 

22-26,   77 
secretaries,   22,   23,   29,   49, 

158 
Churches,    native,     157,     158, 

220,   239-249,   274 


282 


INDEX 


Civilized  people,  14 
Clark,  Mr.,  25 

Climate,   20,  46-52 

Cloth,  32,  34,  37,  44,  45,  101, 

192,  211,  223 
Coffee-raising,  173 
Coffins,   181 

Communion  service,  204 
Converts,    248,   267,    see    also 

Christian,    Christians 
Copper  for  coffin,    182-184 
Cowry-shells,    105,    136,    172, 

277 
Creed,  the,  159 

Daily    Telegraph,   the,    1,    19, 
47,   273 

Daudi  Chwa,  King,  277 

Death,    of    native    Christians, 
157,    162,   163,   166,   214- 
219,  234-243,  248; 
of  missionaries,  30,  36,  82, 
84,  226,  232,  269 

Deekes,  Mr.,   268 

Discoveries,  27 

Diseases,     see     African     dis- 
eases 

Doctors,     Christian,     28,     66, 
90,    115,   251 

Dogs,   37,   52,   60,   63,    145 

Dreams,  6,  7,  137,  164 

Drums,  see  African  tom-toms 

Dumulira,  156,  157 


Edinburgh,  252  29 
Edvvardo,   158 

Egypt,   3,   80,   99,   203,  272 
Elders,  220,  239 
Elephant    tusks,    see   Ivory 
England,  3,  4,  21,  24,  49,  59, 
70,  77,  80,  90,  98,  99,  110 
English,   57; 

governor,   263 ; 

hatchets,   53; 

language,  41,   71,   77,   97; 

missionaries,    76,    105,    106, 
110,  136,  233,  257; 

people,    87,    95,    144,    152, 
203; 

soldiers,  3,  80,  203 
Europe,    European,    66,    135, 

146,    191 
Evil  spirits,   see   Spirits,   evil 
Executioners,  210,  216,  234 

Fable  of  a  cat,   150-152 

Farming,    172,    173 

Fences  of  tiger  grass,  74,  75, 

91,  107,  260 
Fever,    1,    42-51,    59,    83,    84, 

225,   268,   269 
Flags,     flagstaff,     7,     60,     61, 

101,   252 
Food,    33,    40-43,   46,   51,   60, 

73,    84,    87,    88,    96,    105, 

116,   136,    172 
French       missionaries,       104, 

105,    110,    143,    144,    149, 

228,   253,  257,   259 


283 


INDEX 


Gabunga,   126,   132,  232 

Germany,  26 

Germans,    203 

Gifts,   8,   79 

God,  3,  4,   13,  14,  24,  31,  56, 

69,   78,  83,  95,   100,   108, 

118-130,    142,    1532    161, 

193 
Gods,  heathen2   112,   119-122, 

235 
Gold  and  silver,  147 
Golden   Rule,  5 
Gordon,  General,  80,  99,  271; 

Rev.  Cyril,  256,  258,  265 
Gospels,    101,    156,    157,    221, 

252,  261 
Great    Britain,    60,    see    also 

England,    English 
Grindstones,   32,    53,   93 
Guns,  gunpowder,   7,   32,   74, 

76,    101,    130,    206,    207, 

223,  226 

Hammock    for   traveling,    46, 

66 
Handkerchiefs,   32-34 
Hannington,      Bishop,      224- 

228,    232 
Hartwell,  Mr.,  37 
Heathen,   10,   100; 

religion,    10-12,    105,    116, 

129,  135 
Hoes,  94 
Honga,  43-46,   58 


House  of  Lords,  9 

Houses,   huts,    5,   21,    75,    80, 

88,  91,  147,  173-175,  186, 

225,   260,  266 
Eow  I  Found  Livingstone,  29 
Human    sacrifices,    190,    192, 

197 
Hutchinson,  Mr.,  23 
Huts,  see  Eouses,  huts 

Indian,  coolies,  33; 

merchants,   33 
Insects,  see  African  birds  and 

insects 
Interpreters,    14,    37,   41,    77, 

79,    80,     118,     119,     121, 

170,  261 
Ivory,   5,  62   12,   17,   32,   102, 

109,   111,   147 

Jesus  Christ,  14,  16,  79,  101, 
104,  147,  148,  155,  161, 
192 

Jungles,  2,  402  43,  46,  54,84 

Kagei,  72,  84,  120 

Kakumba,   213-216 

Kalema,  King,   256 

Katikiro,  the,  17,  133,  165, 
192,  199,  201,  208-212, 
222,  235,  see  also  Prime 
Minister 

Kauta,    17,    187 

Kidza,   214,    217 


284 


INDEX 


King,  see  Mutesa,  Mwanga 
Koran,  the,  16,   18,  109,  140, 

138,   193,  254 
Kyambalango,   182,  192 

Letters,  3,  4,   23-25,   29,  47, 

49,   71,   72,   77,   78,   154, 

205,  246,  267 
Litchfield,  Mr.,  106,  154 
Livingstone,    David,    10,    270 
London,   1-3,   19,  22,  29,  77, 

273 
Lord's  Prayer,  the,   5,   159 
Lugalama,   213-218 
Luganda    language,     81,     97, 

154,   170 
Lukonge,  72,  121,  231 

Machinery,  28,  37,  265 
Mackay,     Alexander,     26-30, 
36-70,  82-279; 
boyhood,  26,  27; 
early  missionary  plans,  28; 
farewell  words,   30; 
favorable   start   from   Zan- 
zibar, 36,  37; 
fever  and  return  to  coast, 

42-48; 
finds  more  carriers,  49-51; 
finishes   road,   52-58 ; 
flags  on  march  inland,  60- 

66; 
gives  up  use  of  carts,  67- 
69; 


hastens    to    Victoria    Lake, 

82-85 ; 
is  received  by  Mutesa,  86, 

87; 
makes     many     things,     93, 

170,   178,   251; 
name  given  him,  171; 
needs    and    trip    to    Uyui, 

136,   137,   140; 
new  house  built,  174,  175; 
opposed  by  Mohammedans, 

141-152; 
palace    services    and    talks, 

98-110,      117-131,      190- 

194;  222,  223,  241,  242; 
pleads  with  Mutesa,  193; 
printing,  107,  170,  252,  260; 
receives    letter    from    first 

convert,  154,  155; 
sinking  a  well,  175-177; 
teaching,   170,  251; 
translating  Bible,   170,251, 

252,  261; 
undertaker    for    queen    Na- 

masole,    179-190; 
Usambiro      mission,      258- 

269; 
various    attacks    of    fever, 

and    the    last    fatal    one, 

51,     83,     84,     175,     176, 

268,  269; 
work,    170,    171,    222,    241, 

251,   252,   265; 
workshops,  93,  265 


285 


INDEX 


Madagascar,  28 

Magic  lantern,  33,  93 

Map  of  Africa,  given  Mutesa, 

79 
Mapera,    144,   145 
Martyrs,     28,     214-218,     226, 

248 
Masudi,   190,   191,   193 


Mohammedans,    257 

Money,    see    African    money, 

Cowry-shells 
Moses,    16,   120 
Mpwapwa,  42,  43,  46,  47,50, 

56,  58,  70,  82,  84 
Mufta,  71,  77,  146 
Mujasi,   204-219 


Medicine,    32,    84,    125,    126,  Mukasa,    111-134,    158,    also 

162,   179,   251,  257  name  of  two  young  men, 

Mengo,   207  158,    163 

Merchants,   33  Music-boxes,    33,    34,    149 

Missionaries,    10,    25-31,    80,  Mutesa,  King,  4-26,  71-200; 

88,    90-93,    98,    104-106,  asks    for   missionaries,    19; 


130,   220,   221,   270,   273, 
see         also         Catholics, 
French   Missionaries 
Mission    boats,    82,    196-205, 
261,  262; 
houses,    82,     88,     90,    173- 
175,   199,   220,   255,   266; 
schools,  82,  88 
Missions,  African,  47,   82, 90, 

91,   224-228,   255-279 
Mohammed,    12,   13,    16,    138, 

139 
Mohammedan,        book,        see 
Koran 
dress,   13; 

prayers,   138-140,   146,164; 
religion,     12,     13-18,     105, 
129,    135,    145,    146,    164, 
254; 
Sabbath,  4,  13 


donations  to  the  mission, 
82,  87-90,   171,  172; 

dress,  9; 

gift  to  Stanley,  8; 

letter  urging  haste,  71,  72; 

letters  to,  77-79; 

members  of  family,  favor- 
ing Christianity,  169, 
228,    236; 

mother's   burial,    179-190; 

palace,  9,  73,  75,  76,  98, 
116,    179; 

presents  from  missiona- 
ries,  79,   85-87; 

"  pretty    sayings,"    94,    95 ; 

promises  to  end  slave-sell- 
ing,  102; 

receptions  at  palace,  8,  9, 
76-82,     86-88,     132-134; 

reported  cruelty,  20; 


286 


INDEX 


services  in  palace,  98; 

sickness,   106,   115-13-4,140, 
194; 

suffering    and    death,    194, 
195; 

swayed    by    impulse,     108- 
110; 

urges    excuses,    193; 

wives,     20,     81,     103,     115, 
196 
Mwanga,   King,    200-260; 

becomes    cruel    and    tyran- 
nical,  200,  233-238; 

causes     death     of     Bishop 
Hannington,  224-227; 

present  to,  228-230; 

promise  broken  and  Chris- 
tians   slain,    242,    243; 

seeks    Mackay's    aid    when 
in  exile,  259 
Mwira,    167,   168 

Namasole,  queen,  179-190 
Xavy  of  Uganda,  10 
New  England  States,  9 
Xile  River,  3 
Nua,  232,   239,  240 

O'Flaherty,      Mr.,     .146-149, 
154-167,    171,    180,    195, 
227,  232 
O'Neill,   Mr.,   25,   70,   72,    82 
Oxen,  52,  58-68,  82,  178 


Palace,  9,  73,  75,  76,  101, 
107,   132,  211,  228 

Palms,   73 

Parables  read,  103,   104 

Parker,  Bishop,  269 

Pearls,   147 

Pearson,  Mr.,  106,  107,  137, 
146,  152,   154 

Philipo,    158,    163-166,   210 

Plague,  the,   156,   162 

Plantains,  73,  116,  166,  173, 
185,   198 

Pombe,    12,   15,  44,   73 

Prayers,    Christian,    23,    116, 
153,  218,  228; 
heathen,  113,  179 

Prime  minister,  9,  121,  see 
also   Katikiro 

Printing,  printing-press,  33, 
107,  136,  see  also  Mack- 
ay,  printing 

Processions,   36,    74,    132 

Protestant,  Protestants,  104, 
137,   248 

Pump,    175,    176 

Pupils,  see  Schools 

Queen  mother,   115,    129,   254 
Queen   Victoria,    1,    106,   109, 
149,  231 

Railways,  28,  273 
Rain,    rainy    season,    49,    59, 
61,  64 


287 


INDEX 


Reading,  readers,  71,  97, 107, 

135,    136,    157,    159,    165, 

221,  231,  237-243,  256 
Receptions,    8,   9,   76-82,   86- 

88 
Religion,        see        Christian, 

Heathen,    Mohammedan 
Rivers,  3,  38,  51,  62,  64,  65, 

84; 
crossing  of,  64,  65,  67 
Roads,    road-building,    8,    28, 

34,   50-58,   70,   73,   74 
Roberto,  238,  239 
Robertson,     Mr.     James,     23, 

36; 
Mr.    William,    25 
Roman    Catholic,    see    Catho- 

lio 
Rubaga,   73,   162,   167 
Rusaka,    182 

Sabbath,  the  Christian,  4,  88, 
98,   101,  106,  204; 
the  Mohammedan,  4,  13 

Sabbath-breaking,  109 

Samweli,  244-246 

Sarah,  164-166 

Schoolhoiise,  90,  98 

Schools,  scholars,  71,  82,  96, 
97,  107,  157,  158,  163, 
222 

Scripture,  see  Bible 

Sebwato,   213 

Sembera,  155,  158 


Seruvvanga,  212-216 
Shields,   198,  206 
Sketch-book,  225 
Slavery,  slaves,  12,  17,  18,  29, 

32,  93,  96,  97,   101,   111, 

144,    147,    155,    169-172, 

192,  274 
Smith,  Dr.  John,  25,  43,  46, 

70,  83; 
Lieutenant  G.  Shergold,  25, 

43,    45,    46,    70,    76,    79, 

81-83,   87,   148 
Soldiers,  see  African  soldiers 
Spears,    198,    206,    226,    237, 

238 
Spirit-huts,    11,    112-114,   133 
Spirit,  ancestral,  118,   126; 
evil,  11,  12,  112,  113,   157, 

169,  274 
Stanley,  Henry  M.,  1-29,  71, 

77,  78,  85,  130,  263-271, 

279 
Steam  -  engines,     steam 

launches,  32,  37,  72,  94, 

167,  261 
Steamships,  100.  273 
Sunday,     see     Sabbath,     the 

Christian 

Teachers,    77,    163,   220,   221, 

279 
Telephone,  100 
Telegraph,  100 
Ten  Commandments,  5,  15 


288 


INDEX 


Tents,  33,  40,  43 
Times,  the  London,  273 
Tom-toms,    see    African    tom- 
toms 
Tools,  32,  37,  53,  93 
Traders,    101,    102,    111,    120, 

223,  see  also  Arabs 
Translating  Bible,  170,  221 
Tribes,  African,  7,  9 
Tsetse  flies,  59,  67,  68 
Tucker,   Bishop,   275 
Turkish  rug",  79 
Turning-lathe,   93 
Tytherleigh,  Mr.,  59,  84 

Uganda,  4-24,  30,  98,  C9 
Ugogo,  43-46 
Umbrellas,  33,  62 
United  States,  60 
Usambiro,  258,  259 
Usoga,   202-205,   209,   223 
Uyui,  136,  137 

Victoria  Lake,  1,  5,  6,  24,  31, 
47,  70,  73,  82,  84,  106, 
203,  232,  273 

Victoria,  Queen,  see  Queen 
Victoria 

Villages,  43,  57 

Waganda  people,  8,  74,  97 


Wagon,  262,  263,  204 
Walker,  Mr.,  256,  257 
Wealth    in    Uganda,    6,    147, 

192 
Wheels,  53,  94 
White  men,  7,   8,   14-19,  36; 

strange    customs    of,   92 
Wilson,   Rev.  Mr.,  25,  70,  76, 

81,  82,  85,  87 
Wire,  12,  32,  34 
Witchcraft,  109,  123 
Witches,  112,  181 
Wives,  see  African  wives 
Wizards,     111-134,     156-161, 

274 
Women,  86,  96,  110,  132,  147, 

157,    165-168,    172,    173, 

182,   185,  188,   192 
Work,  165-168,  171-177,  22S, 

233,  276; 
done    by    Mackay,    93,    94, 

107,    131,   170-190 
Wright,  Mr.   Henry,  29; 
also  name  of  Christian  lad, 

158 

Yakobo,   158 

Zanzibar,    31,    33,      5,   47-52, 
141,   146,  203,  254; 

Sultan  of,  77 


289 


DATE    DUE 


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